Posted by Proverbs3130 at 2/13/2011 5:48 PM CST
News flash – it’s Valentine’s Day. I know, the red & pink have been invading our stores for the past 6 weeks and has finally overtaken just about every store possible.
I think my sentiments this Valentine’s Day can be accurately summed up by the image of my friend’s Facebook profile –
My mantra has been “I’m not bitter, I’m not bitter, I’m not bittter”. Yes, that’s right – I am single on Valentine’s Day.
I really am not bitter – maybe just a bit disappointed.
The following is from my Valentine’s Day blog entry 2 years ago. I read through it again and remembered that it’s okay to feel disappointed on February 14th.
Christopher West, one of my favorite authors & speakers, has pointed out that our world has taken an honest, Godly desire and distorted it into what we now see in our broken world. Take, for instance, the frustration of being single on Valentine’s Day.
I have Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love” running in my head, but there is a lot of truth about human nature in this classic song. We are created to love.
In Genesis 1:26-27 –
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church elaborates on this –
God’s love is “everlasting”:41 “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you.”42 Through Jeremiah, God declares to his people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”43
But St. John goes even further when he affirms that “God is love”:44 God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret:45 God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange. (CCC 220-221, emphasis added)
Which, of course, brings up the million dollar question: What is love?
Around this time of year, “love” starts to look a lot like this:
and those of us who are single can easily develop an attitude such as this:
John 15:13 tells us “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” It’s not “Greater love has no one than this, that he buy her a dozen roses, chocolate, and jewelry”.
A more powerful definition of love in John’s gospel is in chapter 13: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
We are created to love and be loved as Christ loves us – a sincere, self-sacrificing love. Pope John Paul II said “Man can fully discover his true self only in a sincere gift of self.”
So, why is it we don’t hear about men wondering why they aren’t showered with affection on Valentine’s Day? Ephesians 5:25 sheds some light on this: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” We are designed to crave someone to love us the way Christ loves the church – willing to do whatever it takes to be with her. Why else do you think women swoon over sappy movie scenes like these:
