The Celebration of Love
WEST SIDE'S BUMP FOR THE MONTH
February 2001
Walking into any Zeller's or Wal-Mart stores lately we find that
the season of Valentine's day is fast approaching. Chocolates, hearts
and other little reminders are everywhere urging us to pick out
something special for that someone special in our lives.
As I was thinking about this holiday I wanted to do some searching to
see if something has changed over the past couple of hundred years
regarding the purpose of this day!
Sadly, If a guy wants to find out exactly who St.Valentine was he
might run into some difficulty because it seems no one knows for sure
which Valentine, valentine's day is named after!
Because of this there are differing views over which story is the
correct one but if you don't mind I would like to share one that is a
little more popular than the others.
Valentine apparently was imprisoned in the early centuries for
refusing to worship pagan gods. While in prison he is said to have
made friends with the jailer's daughter and by praying for her she was
relieved of her ailment. The connection with February 14 is that this
was the date of his execution and on that day he supposedly wrote her
and signed it "Your Valentine."
So, where did Valentine's day come from?
Well, because the pagans had love celebrations that were really grossly
immoral, a holiday was invented to contrast their 'brand' of love
with a more pure and holy one and the name of this day was?
You guessed it, Valentine's. So, not much has changed through the
years regarding this romantic day!
Christians however can look at this 'celebration of love' in a
different way even yet because the whole Christian religion is based on
a celebration of love. Over and over again God sends us gifts
reminding us of our One true Love that has shined in our hearts so
brightly over the past 2,000 years.
Remember this February 14th, no matter what you have planned that
a gift of love was sent to you many years ago and that love is to
always be celebrated as a reminder of who we are and who we will
eventually be! -- Drew Chapados
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