Handmade Love: A Valentine Homily

[kentuckymom]

I post something like this on Facebook and also email it out to friends and family every year. I thought some of you might appreciate reading it as well. I've edited it to take out the kids' real names:

 

It's Valentine's Day again, which means it's time for my annual digital Valentine  Homily. In case you're receiving this for the first time, I'll give a brief summary of what this is. If you're a veteran reader, feel free to skip to the next paragraph. A long time ago (almost 20 years, boy I'm getting old) in a galaxy far, far away called Albion College I was an unhappily college junior looking forward to celebrating another Valentine's Day making fun of a silly, mush romantic holiday. Then shortly before Valentine's Day I had a revelation. I decided there was no reason to disdain a holiday that celebrates love even if I didn't have romantic love. I decided to use the day to celebrate the love of friends, of family, and of God, and sent out an email to my friends encouraging them to do the same. In the almost two decades since, my annual Valentine's message has become a reflection on my life and faith, with some relation to Valentine's Day. As always, you are welcome to share the message as long as you don't pretend you wrote it. And on to the homily.....

 

This week both of my kids exchanged Valentines with their classmates. Remember back when you did that? In preschool and elementary school, Valentine's Day was always super exciting. It only started to devolve into a day about romance as adolescence loomed. With that in mind, it was interesting to see the difference in Valentine anticipation between my five year old preK daughter and my 10 (almost 11) year old 5th grade son. Kittygilr made her Valentines from a "make your own card" kit that had been languishing in her brother's room for years. It made 20 cards, which was the exact number she needed. She handcrafted those cards with an incredible amount of thought and love. Each friend got a card personalized with something she thought they would like and a personalized message (dictated to me, since she can't write well yet). She even made a "special touch" design on the outside of every envelope. Squirrelboy, on the other hand, wanted to give out Valentines but didn't care very much about the process. He just asked me to buy some Valentines I thought he'd like. Then I showed them to him and he said, "Yeah, those are good. Can you write my name and my classmates' names on them?" He didn't want to write a personalized message to anyone. He didn't want to put a "special touch" on the envelopes. This year exchanging Valentines was just something he did because he's always done it. Sure, he appreciates Valentine's Day in a way, but he doesn't have the excitement about and individual love for his classmates that his sister has.

 

I was thinking about this in church today when I should have been paying attention to the sermon and I realized I could actually make a theological point with it :). It's very easy to get lost in the day to day routines of life and start thinking that the way God feels about us is the way the average 5th grader feels about the class Valentine exchange. Sure, He doesn't mind keeping us around, but it's not as if he has any particularly special feelings about us. As long as we don't embarrass him too much he'll keep giving us stuff, but it's not really a big deal to him. In reality, though, the way God feels about us is the way Kittygirl felt about making Valentines for her classmates, about a million times over. God created all of us and loves all of us individually. He doesn't love everything we do. In fact, the things we do often cause him great grief because they separate us from the relationship He wants to have with us. But just like Kittygirl wasn't going to take back her classmates' cards if they didn't gush over them, God isn't going to stop loving us just because we're not paying attention to Him. 

 

In an ideal world, everyone has at least one person and better yet a whole circle of people whose love in some way reflects God's love toward them. I hope you have people like that. I know for a fact that many of you do. Whether or not you have romantic love or familial love to celebrate today, however, I hope you know that you will always have God's love. God loves us with an everlasting love and sent His Son to die on a cross so that we could know that love. Now that's something worth celebrating.

 

Happy Valentine's Day. Enjoy celebrating with those you love.