Valentine’s day has become a commercial holiday, where everyone is supposed to go out of their way to get something special for their significant other. For those without significant others it’s often referred to as Singles Awareness Day (appropriately acronym-ed SAD) and is a lonely time. But for the sake of this argument we will assume that it is not the Singles Awareness Day as many people have, but you have a valentine and you are going out to get her a gift. I’m also coming at this from the guy’s perspective, as I’m a guy. I’m of the mindset that my favorite lady shouldn’t have to do anything for me when it comes to valentines day, but that’s another story entirely that involves me being an old fashioned hopeless romantic.
In the endless commerce we have in America, there are literally thousands of products that are marketed to us for valentines day, from pink journals to computers, candies to cars. However, if we just go out and pick up the first “valentines day gift” that we see, we know that we might find ourselves back with the SAD crowd. What we really need to do to find a Valentine’s Day gift is to put some actual thought into it, find something romantic and thoughtful that we can give that will show them that we care enough about them to not only get them something, but get something that is relevant and that shows how we feel about them. There’s not really a way to buy yourself out of it either. You can try to buy her the most expensive gift, but it might not be something that she needs or even wants, and puts her in an uncomfortable position. You can try to buy her a large number of gifts to cover all of the bases, but unless they all have some significant meaning, this is a case where the whole is definitely not the sum of its parts. By far the best idea for a Valentines Day gift is to give her something that isn’t necessarily expensive, but means something special or significant between you. I would like to think that most other guys would agree with me too.
Since we are in this relationship with Christ, we should treat gifts to him the same way. We need to give him something that is significant and special in our relationship, and that changes for each of us. Just like each of us wants something different for a gift, God wants something different from each of us that represents something that he has given us, and what we want to do for Him. There’s no way to buy out God by giving Him what you think is the most extravagant gift in the world; God doesn’t want from you what the rest of the world thinks is best, he wants what he says is best from you. Similarly, a thoughtless gift is just as bad. You can do a number of different “good” things that make yourself feel better, but the truth is that you might be missing the one thing that God really wants from you. Busying yourself with things that would be seen as “good” by the rest of the world instead of what God really wants you to do is not going to improve your relationship with you.
The truth is that even though we have special holidays for gifts like Valentines Day, Birthdays, and even the Commercial side of Christmas, every day He is giving us new gifts, and we should respond in kind. That’s the kind of love that God is about; unconditional love where every day is Valentine’s Day. We should be offering the best of what we have every day to God for His use in His purposes. We should continually be thinking about what the best thing we can give to God right now is. The great thing is that this can be surprisingly little. In healthy relationships, even the everyday tasks that are required of us can become a point of love between a couple. In the same way, we can choose to do everything that we have to do with God. Allowing ourselves to open up even the everyday aspects of our lives to Him opens up a new way to worship, a new way to be actively pursuing Him. When you’re pursuing a relationship, finding out more about them will always lead to a deeper relationship.
