It is Valentine’s Day. Like many holidays in our time, the history of Valentine’s Day has become unknown to the public. People have changed the meaning of it to fit their own definitions. This is why its new meaning seems to be greeting cards, fancy dinners and flowers. Here are a couple of facts about Valentine’s Day.
- St. Valentine is known to be a priest that was martyred because he continued to perform marriages for young men and women despite Emperor Claudius II mandating that he doesn’t. Claudius made this decision because he believed that single young men made better soldiers.
- Other stories contend that Valentine may have been killed for helping Christians escape from Roman prisons. The tradition says that Valentine had fallen in love with the Jailor’s daughter. Just before his death, he sent her a letter and signed it “From Your Valentine,” an expression we still use today.
- Why is it celebrated in February? No one seems to know for sure but some believe that it commemorates the date of Valentine’s death which was in February around 270 A.D. Others believe that the Catholic church replaced a Pagan spring holiday called Lupercalia with Valentine’s Day in an effort to ‘Christianize’ the region.
- It is deeply rooted as a Catholic tradition
In any event, Valentine’s Day always reminds me of Love as it does for most people. It certainly makes me think of Nicole. CLICK HERE to watch a 3 minute summary video of our wedding. I love watching it, it reminds me of a very happy day. I also love the part of her and I holding hands and twirling in a circle…officially the cheesiest piece of video there was ever made of me. The rest of it is great though.
I also reflect on Evan and how great it has been to get to learn his personality. Before I was a father I think I believed that a personality was a learned trait. At least mostly. Let me tell you that although he has behaviors that may be learned his personality has been just about the same from day one. He has a great sense of humor, he loves to learn how things work, he likes to help us out, he is sensitive and if there is a train within 100 miles of where he is, he needs to see it.
Then there is our unborn baby. We’ve picked a name but I can’t tell anyone what it is yet. It’s an odd experience to love someone you have never met before. I can’t wait to meet him and to learn more about him. Right now I don’t know a lot about him. I am able to compare him to Evan in that he doesn’t seem to have the hiccups as much as Evan did and right about 9 or 9:30 at night he likes to kick Nicole and move around. A couple of months and I’ll know more .
All of the relationships above have really taught me more about God’s relationship with me. It has taught me that it takes effort and attention to get to know anyone including God. For the first time in my life I feel that I am making more progress at getting to know Him and for the first time I understand that it really is a two-way relationship. Now I know why people call Him a living God. With this relationship comes an understanding of how many people don’t know him. This, as it turns out, has become an area of frustration in my life but…it is a welcomed one. I think this is what Plato referred to as enlightenment. The bible refers to it as coming home. (John 14:23)
My Plowshare 