Ah, February. Why is a month so short feel so long? Maybe it’s because February cannot make up its mind. February has a squeak to it because it’s “a hinge month”…Winter still holding on and yet Spring struggling to emerge. The squeaks of February are the sound of a car door opening on a cold morning, the sound of snow underfoot, the sound of the cat who was just let out wanting right back in. All because it’s February.
But two things give me hope in this confused and dreary month. Two things give me cause for thanks. One is Punxsutawney Phil, the celebrated ground hog of Ground Hog day. Apparently this year Phil did not see his shadow on Ground Hog day which apparently means an early spring. (I saw my shadow and my Marilyn says it’s a bigger shadow than it used to be, but that’s a story for another day!)
Yet no matter how cold or wet or snowy it is today, no matter who saw their shadow on Ground Hog day, the blessed truth is, Spring is not far away. God planned it that way. Isn’t it great that the Lord of Creation gave us Spring to look forward to and rejoice in!? I would despair if February was followed by another February all over again! I can wrap a lot of gratitude around that thought.
My second cause for thanks is Valentines Day.
(BTW, did you know that St. Valentine is by tradition, the patron saint of lovers and epileptics, travelers and bee keepers? Bee keepers?! Makes me wonder why honey is not the sweet of the season instead of chocolate, but that too is a story for another day!)
Let’s be certain of one thing, Valentines Day is totally a manufactured event, a reason for Hallmark to sell greeting cards, florists to sell roses and corner drug stores to sell chocolate.
So yes, to be sure, much of the love that is at the center of Valentines Day is sentimental, guilt driven, mostly vacuous and truly commercialized. But only if you let how the culture marks that day shape how you mark that day. Can it be kept in some authentic way we haven’t considered before? Why simply write it off when you can leverage it for something of real value?
St. John of the Cross, 16th Century, a truer saint than Valentine will ever be, wrote that “If you put love where there is none, then love is there.” So if Paul was right in I Corinthians 13 (and he was, btw!) that the greatest of all Christian virtues is love, then putting that love in someone’s life, has greater power than chocolates or flowers or any other sentiment to move hearts.
And it’s not given out of guilt. It’s given out of the will to love. Who in your world needs to be loved? Into whose life could God be prompting you to put love? Because if you would put love where there is none…where it is lacking or missing… then love would be there. Not the hollowed out sentimental kind. But muscular love…the love of God filling the human heart being put where it is needed most.
So am grateful that February offers me a day to consider who needs something of the love God has poured into my life, put into their. Maybe this February would be considerably warmer if we hijacked the sentiments of Valentine’s Day and instead, put real love where there is none. Because then, love would be there.
…just thinkling
