Ode to Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2013 at 6:00 am · Filed under stories and tagged: Holidays, love, relationships, Valentine, Valentines Day

< by Jill >

As long as I’ve been aware of holidays, I’ve been in love with Valentine’s Day. Although Christmas and Easter hold special significance to me as a Christ follower, only Valentine’s Day reaches across the aisle and envelops all people of all beliefs in one big squeeze. It’s a holiday for taking yourself less seriously and taking others more — a holiday for purposefully (but not manually) upturning the corners of a beloved’s mouth.

It’s a chance to give the greatest compliment: I love you.

… and it’s a chance to give the greatest affirmation: I love you, too.

There are no barriers to entry. Valentine’s Day is available to friends, parents, and coworkers in equal measure as it is to paramours. If you’ve ever loved someone in any kind of way, it’s a calendar-given-day to say it. So, get out there!

Thank your boss for being so understanding that day you got sick.

Forgive your sister for being nasty that one time — and remind her that she is the person who makes you laugh more than anyone in the world.

Look into your girlfriend’s eyes and admit that you’re falling in love and it scares you to death.

If we really dissect the human condition and investigate what matters, this is what we find: Mankind’s greatest need and greatest accomplishment is to know and be fully known by another. That’s it. It’s not money, it’s not status, it’s not stuff. It’s relationships. And that is why Valentine’s Day is the greatest: It celebrates the one thing that really matters.

So please, go celebrate. And if you don’t have a Valentine in a traditional sense, take heart. You are loved — fully and completely — just exactly as you are.

Two years ago, I received a big box of heart-shaped cookies from Nate. My sweetheart knows my sweet tooth!

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