A lot of people battle with Valentine's Day. It's easy to measure your self worth by the amount of roses, chocolates or fb pokes that you get. Or the lack of said tokens of affection.
I remember in grade 10, I had just started at a new school when Valentine's came up. You could send all kinds of valentine's to each other with little heart shaped notes attached and on the morning of Feb 14th they were delivered to each class. I was sitting there as they were reading notes and handing out heart shaped chocolates and pink teddy bears and I knew for a fact that at least some people in my grade knew I existed. But did anyone care enough to send me something? 
The last rose was handed out. It wasn't for me.
One of the girls turned around and looked at the empty desk space in front of me and said;
"Shame; The new girl didn't get anything!"
She said it loud enough to make the whole of purple house grade 10 tutor stop admiring their gifts for a moment and shift their focus on the new girl without a Valentine. Me.
Although I did end up getting a rose from a friend later on in the day, I never forgot that horrible feeling from that moment in the morning. "No one cares about me." No one even cares enough to send me a card; let alone a chocolate or a rose.
I'm not sure when exactly I figured this out, but at some point it suddenly hit me:Love isn't measured by the amount of roses you get from high school crushes.
This kind of love is fickle. Basing your identity in this leaves you empty because it doesn't last. We hope it does. We do all we can and live in a pretense that it is real. But we are human, we fail and let each other down. And we get our hearts crushed because we try to base our self image into these things. "If I just get this many roses then I'll be loved. Then I will be worth something." But the girl or guy who gave you that sweet poem and chocolates on the 14th and made you finally feel alive and fulfilled stops replying to your chats before the week is out. Human love fails.
But God's Love doesn't.
In fact, his love is so perfect and all-encompassing that if you took all the love in the world and concentrated it onto one person, even that would just be a mere fraction of God's love for every. single. person.
Crazy right?
Imagine someone you really love. So much you 'could die for them'. Would you? Maybe. But imagine that person hated you and didn't want to be anywhere near you, ever. Would you still take a bullet for that person?
In the Bible, Romans 5.8 says that while we were still sinners, so while we were still going against God, hating him and wanting nothing to do with him, he loved us so much that he sent Jesus, God in human form, to die instead of us. For our sins.
God's love never fails.
I am convinced that neither death nor life, angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8.38-39)
When I started understanding God's deep love for me, the need for human recognition started to fade. I could base my identity in God, because He wont change. I can look to God's love for me and find my self worth in Him. He loves ME! And there's nothing I can do about it, nothing to make Him love me any more or any less!
And God is so much greater than anyone could be on Valentine's DayA girl can organize you a candle lit dinner; but God gave you the stars
A guy can buy you a rose; but God crafted the flowers for you
A girl can sing a pretty song for you; but God has the birds chirp for you, the wind whistle for you, and the oceans roar out His greatness.
A guy can paint you a painting; but God gives you the unique sunset every day.
And God doesn't only stick around for Valentine's Day. He loves you more than you can imagine for all of eternity.
:)
It's pretty crazy isn't it?
