Who is your Valentine?

Who is your Valentine?

The other day, as I was headed over to watch my sweet Grandbabies, a thought came to me.  If you have followed me before, it is obvious that my Blog title is accurate, "The Meandering Mind of a Happy Farmwife." This particular day, out of the blue, I found myself wondering about Valentine's Day. 

I guess because we just finished celebrating Christmas, I thought something like this, "hmmm, Christmas is about when Love came down, Jesus was born. Valentine's is all about Love. What is the origin of Valentine's Day anyway? Seems both holidays are all about LOVE?"

Yes this is how my brain works, I am only glad it was not while I lay in bed trying to go to sleep this time. I spend many sleepless nights with my mind wandering and wondering.

My husband and my anniversary happens to be in February, but not because of Valentines day. Although it would  be fitting. Truth however is it is because after 6.5 years waiting for him to decide to marry me, when he said lets elope, I said next week!!.....ok not really that quick, but he said "let's elope" in January, and I wasn't about to give him time to change his mind. So it took a few weeks to set up the  snowmobile trip, get the paperwork so it would be legal and documented in the county etc. 

I knew I loved him and wanted to spend the rest of my life with him very soon in our relationship, so this was excruciating waiting for him to marry me. My love for him is timeless, ever lasting, eternal, unconditional. *important point will make sense if you continue reading ;)

Anyways, back to my question that popped into my mind the other morning. I thought, hmmm, Christmas is all about LOVE, but so is Valentine's day, what is valentines really?

So I decided to look up Valentine's Day and its origin, (yes I am a book nerd, I look things up often. And if I am being honest I miss the old days of looking things up in Dictionaries and Encyclopedias)

Have you ever looked up Valentine's Day? Yikes, some crazy stories behind the very beginning of it including St. Valentine writing a letter to a young girl he tutored that he fell in love with. He was in prison for this crime (I am guessing she was very young for him) and before he died he sent her one last letter signing it "From your Valentine". This story is said to be a legend, which means it may or may not be true. But it is a fact that in 1969 the Roman Catholic church removed the feast of St. Valentine from its calendar, although they do still recognize Valentine as a Saint.

Another, well, not so romantic story about the history of Valentine/s Day is that there once was a "fertility festival." It was held in Ancient Roman times and was called Lupercalia. This is not romantic at all and probably not the way to get a date, but apparently men from a particular order of Roman Priest, would run naked through the streets in mid-February.  While running through these streets they carried blood soaked hides of animals that had been sacrificed and they would slap women with them.  This was said to promote fertility.  Then a lottery was held for the women to be paired off with the men. It was somewhere in the 5th Century Pope Gelasius (the first), outlawed this festival. It is said that he is the one that then designated February 14 as Valentine's day to replace the above "Pagan holiday."

It wasn't until the middle ages that Valentine's day became a more love related holiday. There was a British poet named, Geoffrey Chaucer. In Britain, it was around February 14 that the birds would come out and start mating and chirping. In one piece of Chaucer's poetry he penned these words, 

"for this was on Saint Valentine's Day, /When fowl comes there his mate to take," 

"The Parliament of Fowls" by Geoffrey Chaucer

The article I found on my quest to answer the question that entered my mind, states that it can't be verified that Chaucer can take all the credit, but that between him and Shakespeare, people began exchanging "love letters" to celebrate Valentine's Day.  

**If you would like to read the full article, it was found at countryliving.com, the Title: "The True History of Valentine's Day Might Surprise you ---Here's What to Know " by Taysha Murtaugh and Terri Robertson Jan.3, 2024

So anyways, I found out that Valentine's wasn't always that romantic or that lovely of an event, but let's pretend I didn't find out that women were hit with dead animals by naked men.....let's go back to my original understanding of  Valentine's Day, the Hallmark version.

Valentine's Day (The Hallmark version) is all about Love. It is a holiday set aside to remind us to let those we love know how much we love them. 

It is a time to show affection, affirm your unconditional love for your spouse or partner, it is a holiday where "true love" is to be expressed. 

Love is a funny thing when you think about it. 

I love my husband with every ounce of my being, and I am well aware how much he loves me. I mean he must to still be here humoring me as my mind wanders to these strange places. He often tries to answer these crazy questions that pop into my head, I mean that's love. But is there anyone else that might love me more? Is there anyone else that deserves to be my valentine?

Well, hmmm, No.......and well.....YES!!

If I were to make a list with boxes to check off it might look something like this:

Jim Loves me with all of his heart - CHECK

Jesus Loves me with all of his heart - CHECK

Jim holds me when I cry - CHECK

Jesus hold me when I cry - CHECK

Jim has given me two beautiful children - CHECK

Jesus has given me two beautiful children - CHECK

Jim doesn't hold my flaws against me - CHECK

Jesus doesn't hold my flaws against me - CHECK

(this list could go on and on, but you get my point, but now watch this)

Jim was beaten and bruised for me - uhm nope

Jesus was beaten and bruised for me - CHECK

Jim was spit on for me - uhm nope

Jesus was spit on for me - CHECK

Jim suffered mental and emotional abuse for me - hmm I hope not

Jesus suffered mental and emotional abuse for me - CHECK

Jim was humiliated and bullied for me  -  uh I don't think so

Jesus was humiliated and bullied for me - CHECK

Jim was stripped of his clothes, made to carry a (what a French Architect, Charles Rohault de Fleury determined to be) 165 pound cross what is estimated to be 2000 ft. for me  - Nope

Jesus carried a 165 pound cross around 2000 ft for me - CHECK

Jim lost his life for me in the most brutal of ways hanging on the cross he was exhausted from carrying the entire time thinking of me - hmmm,  Although I do believe my husband loves me very much, I do not believe he would choose death. (that is a tough one to even imagine, why because I love him so much)

Jesus lost his life, he carried that cross, knowing he was headed to his death, knowing it was going to be brutal, the entire time he knew he was doing it for me.

We love, because he first loved us. I love my husband with all of my heart, I would give up most of everything and anything for him, and I know he would do the same for me.  But I feel pretty confident in saying that neither of us would wish the other to give up their life, be spit on, humiliated, beaten and hung on a cross to suffer and die for the sake of the other. 

 But Jesus did all of that for us, and he did that for you too. Can you think of anyone else who loves you that much? 

I couldn't bare to think of Jim on the cross where I was listing things above in that comparison.  Because I love him so much, that it hurts my heart to even imagine. And ya know, it hurts my heart to think of Jesus up there dying for me too, why because I love him too. Sometimes we forget that Jesus was made human, he was a person, he loved and was loved and he loved us so much he took death to give us eternal life.

We can go even further and say, do you know anyone that would send their own child to die for you? God loved us so much he gave his only son to hang on the cross to free us of our sins.

His son, Jesus, took those nails and that abuse because he loved his father and loved us.

 Sounds like if Valentine's is all about Love,  Jesus picked Us to be his Valentine, because I can't imagine anyone who showed us love as much as he did.

Jesus is my Valentine, but don't worry, Jim's not mad, he picked Jesus as his Valentine too!

Be Blessed,

The Happy Farmwife