“This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”  1 John 3:16

 Whether you’re single this Valentine’s Day or spending it with the one you love, never fret, Jesus can always be your valentine!  I had a lovely surprise this week when I went to my church mailbox and found a valentine and a small box of chocolates.  I wondered who could be giving me a Valentine?  The picture was hand colored with markers and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day!”  I turned the card over and it said, “You are so LOVED!  Happy Valentine’s Day,” signed Love, from 4 small boys in our congregation.  I looked at the other mailboxes and saw that all the single people received one as well.   What a pleasant reminder from small boys and God who put it in their hearts, to remember the senior members of their church family.  And I celebrate their parents who are encouraging their young children to show the love of Jesus to people in a different age group!

Tradition tells us that Valentine’s Day started out as a day to remember a Christian martyr, St. Valentine.  This was before the cupids, flowers and chocolates came along to take the focus off Valentine’s sacrifice.  Valentine was a Christian leader in Rome about 270 AD.  At that time Christians were arrested and thrown in prison for their faith.  Valentine was arrested for performing Christian marriages, hence the “love angle.”  During his trial, he was asked what he thought of the Roman gods, Jupiter and Mercury.  His reply was that Jesus Christ was the One and Only true God, so he was put in prison.

That didn’t stop Valentine from talking about Jesus.  He witnessed to the guard who put him there and eventually his whole family, 46 in all, came to the Lord.  When the Roman emperor heard that Valentine was still speaking about Jesus and people were being won for Christ in the prison, he was furious and had him beheaded.  What makes people risk their lives to spread the good news of the gospel even though it means certain death?  It’s because they are so thankful for what Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary to give them eternal salvation, that they don’t consider their own lives!  Jesus is their Valentine!  He is their One and Only God!

There are Christians in the Middle East, China, Africa, India and other countries of the world who face martyrdom every day.  God is enabling them through His Holy Spirit to spread the good news even if they face prison. It’s easy to praise the Lord and attend Church on Sunday in America, but if we were tested in that thing, would we stand firm for Christ?  I saw a card that said, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”  An interesting question!!

God has a lot to say about “love.”  It’s mentioned over 300 times in the Bible, so it must be important to Him!  This verse is a good place to start, “We love Him because He first loved us,” 1 John 4:19.  It all begins with God’s love which give us the ability to love others.   Ephesians 3:17-19 says, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”   Jesus wants to be your Valentine!  Receive His gift today and have a Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Your friend, Jean