Where the Heart is…

The time has come and gone for the worldly holiday called Valentine’s Day. Many things can be brought up about this day as can be all the other holidays. Honestly these worldly holidays are only a counterfeit to God’s own days that He had established for us. I will bring up some of the common things that are associated with this particular day as well as things of greater importance. From this we need to see truly where our Hearts are when it comes to God and His Word which we claim to hold to such high esteem and holiness.

First we will go back in time before Valentine’s Day and look at another holiday that the Roman’s enjoyed celebrating. Lupercalia is what that ancient day was called and was normally celebrated on February 13^th thru the 15^th. Two male goats and a dog where sacrificed, the sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the victims, which were called februa, dressed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed goats, in imitation of Lupercus, and ran round the walls of the old Palatine city, the line of which was marked with stones, with the thongs in their hands in two bands, striking the people who crowded near. Girls and young women would line up on their route to receive lashes from these whips. This was supposed to ensure fertility, prevent sterility in women and ease the pains of childbirth. In the last decade of the 5^th century this celebration came to its end and was abolished. This gives you a brief rundown of what took place during the celebration.

Next we will look a little at Valentine’s Day. Historically there were at least three Saints by the name Valentine and as far as all is known the stories surrounding them that are used as the back drop of today’s Valentine’s Day are all questionable, here is the more commonly known one. The most popular martyrology associated with Saint Valentine was that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire; during his imprisonment, he is said to have healed the daughter of his jailer Asterius. Legend states that before his execution he wrote her a letter "from your Valentine" as a farewell. The interesting part is that it wasn’t until around the 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th century when it was associated with courtly love. Then by the 15^th century it had evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards. Nowadays it has become more of a commercialized version of the 15^th century.

Is Valentine’s Day a replacement for Lupercalia? I would think so, even though historically they say there is no connection between them. Is it a coincident that Valentine’s Day falls on the same day as Lupercalia? Considering how all the other worldly holidays have similarly have coincidental timing with ancient pagan holy days, I would side with that evidence that like all the others this too is just another replacement of a pagan holy day.

But the clincher to all of this is something that all those Christians that profess to be followers of Christ do not once think about as they go about celebrating a worldly holiday is that God has setup TRUE HOLY DAYS for us to partake of and enjoy throughout the year. That to me is the saddest truth of all. We are to be doing the things Jesus had done, including celebrating God’s Holy Days, but yet those same people quickly dismiss God’s Days and adopt the World’s Days. So if we look at John 15:18, 19 where we see Jesus making the point of being hated by the world because he has chosen us out of it, then we have to look at that same scripture in the light of if we are doing things that puts us in being loved by the world. If you love Jesus, you hate the world. If you love the world, you hate Jesus. I know this sounds really bad, but it is true unless you want me to say Jesus is wrong and you are right.

Should our love for one another be for one day only or should it be year round?

We all have to choose where we want to place our Heart and as the scriptures point out in Matthew 6:21, where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be also.