This is Love
This coming Tuesday is Valentine’s Day. Today, Valentine’s Day is associated with people expressing their love with gifts of flowers, candy and cards. Here are some fun facts concerning Valentine’s Day:
- 1 in 2 Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day.
- $19.7 billion was spent on Valentine’s Day in 2016.
- Over one billion cards will be exchanged in America.
- 110 million roses will be delivered.
- $345 million will be spent on chocolate and an additional $103 million will be spent on candies for Valentine’s Day.
As you can see, for many Americans Valentine’s Day is an important day to express love to those who matter most to us. For many of us, flowers delivered to our workplace or home from our loved ones just brightens our day. Not only does it demonstrate love for the recipient, but it is also a public declaration of love to all around that person. One surprising statistic — approximately 15% of women send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day. This clearly demonstrates two things. First, this demonstrates the loneliness of the individual. No one wants to be alone, especially on a day designated to demonstrate love for one another. Second, it shows us how we want to be loved. We were created by the One who is Love. Deep down in our souls, we hunger to be loved, which cannot be experienced by receiving flowers, candy, or chocolate. I believe that this is true to not only the 15% of women who send flowers to themselves — all of us want to be loved.. Scripture states, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16).” Without experiencing this love, we will always feel lonely in this world. As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, let us remember our neighbors who are lonely in our prayers that they would experience the love of God. Let us also remember and cherish God’s love for us. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
