Valentine’s Day – Christian Gifts for Your Valentine
This year, why not give your Valentine a treasured gift to showcase your love and your Christian faith? February 14th is fast approaching and will be here and gone before you know it. Valentines Day, also known as St. Valentine’s Day is that one unique day set aside to express your feelings of love and honor for that special someone in your life. Of course, never a day should go by that you don’t express your love for your mate, but there’s just something extra special about this day.
Thoughts of Valentines Day, long since forgotten, can conjure up tender memories from childhood. In elementary 
school every student gave little valentine cards to all the boys and girls in their class. A few short years later, though we might still pass out these cards freely to all of our classmates, we took extra time to get a special card for that one boy or girl we really really liked a lot! We might even get so brave as to give them a box of candy hearts to make them feel that they were more than just your ordinary valentine. You remember those little pastel colored hearts that said things like “Be Mine,” “You’re Sweet” and “I Love You.” And don’t forget those teacher cards. Teachers like valentines too.
By the time you reach the upper levels of elementary, and by junior high for sure, the card giving has narrowed down. Guys usually just give out one, but girls could still give out a few more … as long as there was only one boy that she was giving to. Girls are allowed to be more sentimental with their friends you know. And for a boy to give another boy a valentine card would have been, shall we say, awkward, at that age? But that’s another story. And a box of Valentine chocolates would probably be more appreciated than the candy hearts.
In high school things have become much more serious. By the ripe old age of 16 we have it pretty much figured out who we are going to be with for the rest of our lives. Right? If you were a guy, a special valentines card, a nice box of valentine chocolates, a pretty valentine bouquet of flowers coupled with a cute teddy bear and some kind of heart shaped valentine jewelry would have been more apropos for the occasion. If you could work it out to give her the jewelry over a romantic dinner out, then you were that much more ahead of the game.
If you were a girl, finding the perfect Valentine gift for guys, while usually not as expensive, was nonetheless a sometimes daunting task. Carnations were popular gifts for guys at many schools. A singing valentine, a special bought card or one which you designed yourself, a nice dinner that you prepared, a favorite picture of the two of you with a nice frame or even a stuffed animal would be enough to pump up your guy’s ego and have his hormones working overtime.
So where did all of this tradition start? Who was this St. Valentine anyway? There are actually quite a few derivations when you do a study on the history of Valentine’s Day, and if you are interested you can read about it in “The History of Valentine’s Day.”
Today, Valentine’s Day along with all the other holidays has become very much commercialized and accounts for substantial seasonal sales, especially for florists, jewelers, confectioners and card designers. In fact the U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making Valentine’s day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. And of those one billion cards, studies estimate that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.
But despite its commercialization, Valentine’s Day will forever hold a special place in the hearts of men and women 
throughout the world. For who among us has not at one time been stricken by Cupid’s arrow and known the endless joys of true love and devotion? When you combine that love with God’s immeasurable love for each and every one of us, Valentine’s Day becomes even more memorable. Finding the perfect Christian Valentine gift for your special Valentine will show your love and commitment for them while reflecting the common faith that you share. Make this Valentine’s Day one that your significant other will never forget.
The History of Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is a day steeped in a long history of folklore and legends dating back many centuries. To attribute the day absolutely to one particular beginning may not be possible, as each story has at least some basis in fact. You might be surprised as some of the origins are unveiled.
Lupercalia was a yearly festival observed by the ancient Romans and was celebrated on what we know as the 15th of February. This festival honored a Roman fertility god named Lupercus who was often associated with the Roman god Fauna and the Greek god Pan. The festival took place during the time when young Romans were looking for mates for the upcoming year. One legend has it that women would write love letters and drop them into urns from which the young men would blindly draw, much like a lottery. This process determined your mate for the upcoming year. Another legend holds that it was the young men who would write out love letters to the young women. Either way, this pagan festival had much more to do with lust than love.
But what about St. Valentine you might ask? Isn’t this day also known a St. Valentine’s Day? Indeed it is, so, just who was this saint?
There were actually two St. Valentines, possibly more. One was the bishop in Terni, Italy and was martyred in Rome. The second, and the one whom most scholars attribute as being the patron saint of Valentine’s day, was a priest and physician in Rome during the reign of Claudius II Grothicus. It seems that Claudius had handed down a ruling that no one could get married. He reasoned in his mind that young men who married would be more loyal to their families than to his kingdom, so in an effort to strengthen his military force he handed down the decree.
St. Valentine, realizing the foolishness and unfairness of this decree, continued to marry young couples secretly. When word of this got back to Claudius, he had Valentine thrown into the dungeon awaiting execution. While in the dungeon he found favor with the jailor, who knowing that Valentine was a priest and a physician, asked him to pray for his daughter who was blind. Valentine did indeed pray for the man’s daughter and she received her sight. While awaiting his execution, St. Valentine fell in love with this young lady and expressed his love in notes and letters which were always signed, “From Your Valentine.” St. Valentine was executed on the 14th of February, 270 A.D.
In the year 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius issued a proclamation that February 14th would henceforth be observed as a Christian feast day. Up until this time, Valentines day was very much considered to be a pagan day filled with partying, drinking, animal sacrifices and other pagan rituals.
There is yet another speculation concerning the exchanging of valentines and love notes on this special day. This belief stems from an early European observation that during the second week of February, birds begin the mating process. It was thought therefore that mankind should follow the lead of what naturally occurred in the scope of nature. (Monkey see – monkey do?) 
Geoffrey Chaucer was a poet that lived in the 14th century. He was the first poet to mention St. Valentine in a love poem. “For this was on Seynt Valentynes day, Whan every foul cometh theere to chese his make [mate]…”(Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowles, circa 1380) As you can see he also prescribed to the correlation of nature blooming and birds mating in the Spring, with the inception and declaration of love. This particular valentine poem also contains other symbols of love, such as Cupid and Venus, that came to be associated with Valentine’s day.
As noted above, there are a number of legends pertaining to the origin of Valentine’s day. My personal favorite and that of many others is the tragic tale of St. Valentine, the martyred priest. And even though Valentine’s day is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, we would be remiss not to remember God’s awesome love for us, not only on this day, but every day of our lives. One of my favorite verses in John 15:13 which says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And that is exactly what Jesus did for you and for me. Valentines day is all about love and God’s very nature is love.
Borrowing from a post about Valentines Day by Melissa J. of Families.com, she summed it up nicely.
“In addition to the traditional celebration of love on this day, how about using Valentine’s Day as a reminder of God’s unfailing ultimate love for us?
* We give our loved one flowers; He gives us beautiful fields, mountains, oceans and topical paradises.
* We make special dinner reservations for our loved one; He is preparing a feast for us in Heaven.
* We give our loved one our life in marriage; He gave us His Son Jesus Christ so that we could spend eternity with Him if we should choose Him.
God’s ultimate “valentine” was becoming a sacrifice for us. There is no greater love; it’s a love that has produced priceless salvation to many. As you go about your day today, remember the lover of your soul and don’t forget to show your love toward Him.”