FACE OFF: Valentine’s Day
Celebrating Love
by Zachary Pappas
“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2 NIV
As humans we are, and always have been, fascinated by love. So much so that searching for love on Google will reveal 1,510,000,000 results in only 0.16 seconds. However, as is clearly visible in the verse above, this phenomenon of love is not only something that fascinates us, but something that is of dire importance to our God. After all, it is only through His infinite love that we can live. As children of God we are called to love God with all our hearts, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. (Mark 12: 29-31)
Of course, when we humans think of love our minds generally jump first to the love that one man and one woman share. In my opinion this is one of the greatest gifts God gave us. God in His wisdom saw that it was not good for man to be alone, and so He created the woman. God intended for man and woman to unite, share a life and bask in the magnificent gift of love, thereby honoring and worshipping Him. Love is something marvelous that definitely deserves to be honored and celebrated. This is why I think the concept of Valentine’s Day is a good one; it is a day to meditate upon love and take time and effort to show others what they mean to us. Now, there are those that would say that Valentine’s Day is nothing more than a money-making machine and has been so commercialized that it has lost its meaning.
First of all, florists need to live too. Second, Valentine’s Day will only ever have as much meaning as you allow it to have. If you grudgingly buy your girlfriend a rose or two (or just let your mother pick out something for you) and do nothing special all day, then yes, Valentine’s Day will have no meaning for you and I understand why you don’t enjoy it.
At this point I would like to suggest an alternative (I am speaking primarily to my male audience). Valentine’s Day offers an enormous opportunity. This is a day where you can contemplate what love really means in a biblical sense and also spoil your woman in any way you can imagine. I do not understand the men that complain about “having” to buy their girlfriends presents on Valentine’s Day. Our girlfriend’s happiness should always be first and foremost on our minds, and our constant mission should be to conjure a smile on their faces. Valentine’s Day gives us a chance to dream up something extraordinarily special and romantic to amaze them and let them know how special they are to us.
Let us as Christians move beyond what commercialism has made Valentine’s Day and use February 14 to celebrate God’s love for us (which you can do even if you’re single) and show our significant others that we appreciate and love them.
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Killing Cupid with His Own Arrows
By Kay DeVries
I never really understood the idea behind Valentine’s Day. People try to tell me that it’s about St. Valentine, but what did the guy even do? I’ve researched it. It’s a bunch of rumors and speculation about a guy who died. That’s all, folks. Others tell me it’s about the celebration of love—that whether you’re single or in a relationship, you can show appreciation for the special people in your life. Heck, if we need to create a holiday to prove that we love people, this world has bigger problems than we realize.
Everyone has a different reason for hating Valentine’s Day. For some, it’s the consumerism. Others just hate being single. Some are too dang poor to spend any money (we’re college students after all). And then there’s the people who lack any kind of romance and think the day is a big waste.
I definitely don’t fall into that last category. I’m about as romantic as they come, but I don’t need a nationally recognized day to tell me that. The fact remains that I can show my love and appreciation for my friends and family outside of the day of love. Once you take that away, Valentine’s Day just becomes an overdone excuse to make people buy things. Candy, flowers, cards, expensive gifts, dinners, and event tickets.
So maybe I fall into that first category. Consumerism galore: Just what I needed.
It was barely January 2nd, and all the major franchises were soaking their shelves in a hue oddly resembling that of blood and gore. We’re supposed to literally buy into it hook, line and sinker. Maybe there’s something mesmerizing about fuzzy bears holding hearts, and heart-shaped everything. Maybe naked winged babies with arrows (seriously, can we call DCFS on that one?) are just too adorable to pass up.
And honestly, what makes all the mass-produced merchandise so special? A card with a cheesy line here, a splash of glitter there. Throw in some red and pink doilies and a heart-shaped box, and you have the essence of every Valentine’s Day gift ever to roll out of a factory.
And these days, when it comes to handmade gifts, we don’t even have to be creative or original! There’s Pinterest for that! Just type in “Valentine” and voila, a thousand neatly packaged ideas that you can use to create the perfect gift for that special someone. Can it get any more lazy? Zero brainpower, all of the credit. Winners all around.
But if a guy is going to be really classy, he gets his girl flowers—specifically roses. Tell the lucky lady you love her with blood-red blossoms that will wither and die within a week. That there speaks volumes about your relationship.
In the end, the only irrefutably amazing, wonderful part of Valentine’s Day is February 15th, when ALL the candy goes on clearance. This is where we single people get to have some fun while all the couples wake up with regrets of overspending and having one too many bites of chocolate cake. Nothing says “I love me” like indulging in college-student-priced goodies with none of the hassle of dates and drama.
So happy day of consumerism and overpriced trinkets! Make it “special” like you do every year by buying all the same things. I’ll be at Walmart first thing Friday morning.
