Lessons from the Heart
Make everyday Valentine's Day
By Pastor Chuck Rockey

Rockey

Strange as it may seem as we celebrated Christmas time in the sharing of gifts with our relatives and friends, we again have the same opportunity this Valentine's Day.

It seems only yesterday that we were scurrying around busying ourselves in the searching of gifts to give. And now we are met with the same dilemma of finding that perfect gift for the love of our life.

Don't get me wrong, personally like Valentine's Day, but I think the reason that it comes so close to Christmas is the fact that the makers of candy had so much left over that they needed another needed another holiday to get rid of their candy surplus. So they repackaged it into special heart shaped boxes and we call it Valentine's Day.

We read in the Bible this verse (Luke 19:10 NIV), For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.

Because of the fit of Christ we can celebrate this Valentine's Day celebration with a new vigor of love for each other. We can spend our time searching for the right box of chocolates or maybe this is the day that we have waited all year on to propose to that special girl of our dreams.

With all this background of loving and sharing doesn't it seem odd that we have to wait on a special holiday to tell someone that we love him or her? I have yet to read in the Bible where love wasn't expressed with great enthusiasm. Let's mean what we say and say what we mean.

I want to share a short story with you about Valentine's Day. There was a young lady in her younger school years that had a problem with her eyesight; her eyes were very bad so consequently her glasses were very strong. Her daddy helped her make a special Valentine's box in which each student was to put their Valentines into for her. And her mother spent a lot of time helping her with the Valentines that she would be giving away to her friends and classmates.

She was so happy to take her Valentines and that special mailbox to school that day. She was so excited about the party the teacher was giving them. And as she left for school she just knew that in that box would be one special Valentine.

She came home from school that day all broken-hearted and sobbing. She went to her room a very angry, upset child. In her Valentine box were several Valentines, but they were not the Valentines you or I would expect to see. You see someone had made Valentines that were derogatory and hateful. The Valentines were for the most part handmade with black hearts on them. They said things like "hate you." "I wish you were dead." "You're ugly." "You're stupid."

The cards weren't signed; they didn't have to be to send a message of hate. That child never forgot that one special Valentines Day. The parents of that child were shocked when viewing those so-called Valentines. I suppose that it would not have mattered what the parents said to try to console that little girl. The scare would remain embedded in her heart for all time.

There are many ways of communicating love for each other and one of them is the ultimate Valentine. God gave you and me the ultimate Valentine in the form of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world.

Will that change the fact that someone was so thoughtless as to injure a fellow student? No.

But the gift of God can change the hearts of men and women if only the spirit of Valentines Day is promoted everyday of the year. Let's remember that if God loved us so much that He was willing to share His Son with us, we should be able to share a little bit of our heart with the community around us. Because God is love and with Him abiding in our hearts we should be loving in spite of our surroundings.

(1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV) And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Chuck Rockey is pastor at the Burlington United Methodist Church (winrok@juno.com).

Pray for our nation to seek God

Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. John 4:50 Pd. Adv.