Marriage

Reflecting on Valentines Day and Marriage Week 2024

by Janice S Ramkissoon 
03/25/24
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Each year on the fourteenth day of February, we pause to acknowledge the fact that love is the greatest gift of all! 

As I reflected on Valentines Day 2024 and how it began, it points me back to the cross of Calvary. My mind went back to the celebrations of Christ’s birth, death, resurrection and ascension and then Marriage Week was put into context for me. Married couples need all the help available to daily take up their cross and follow in the footsteps of Christ.

Thinking of Christ’s birth, we celebrate Christmas, seeing the baby Jesus in a manger (who was born to die). Thinking of His death and resurrection, we see the ultimate sacrifice of love and what is asked of husbands in the context of marriage (Ephesians 5:25-33).

My husband (Vince) gave me a bunch of flowers and I re-presented it as a centrepiece for the dinning table in the form of a bouquet. It decorated our dinning table, accompanying our Valentine’s Day meal. Designing the bouquet gave me the opportunity for a time of reflection and I was able to see some parallels I hadn’t seen before.  

Focusing on the red roses, from the the bunch of flowers my husband gave me, I saw the blood that was shed for our sins (Matt. 26:28; 1 Jn. 1:7). Thinking back on  mixing the plant food with the water, I remembered the bitter cup he took for us (Matt. 26:39; 27:48).There are parallels to the story of Easter and the celebration of St. Valentine, on the 14^th February (Valentines Day).

However, thinking back on the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I think about marriages that are clutching at straw. Yet I have hope that what is dying in those marriages will come to life again when we surrender it all to Him.

St. Valentine was killed for his belief and in some ways, in order to thrive in our marriages, married folks die daily to selfish ways as they learn to love their closest neighbour in the truest sense of the phrase (which is a command - Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbour as yourself - Deu. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27; Matt. 22:37).

It's unfortunate that the English language uses the word ‘love' in so many different ways. Often we use the word ‘love' when we really should be using the word, ‘like'.

Nevertheless, ‘love' in the context of a relationship is a choice. For example a person may be working because they have chosen to support their family, financially. In so doing,the time they have to spend with their family will be limited but the choice to work and support their family is a God-honouring one. That is love! They simply need to ensure that they prioritise time for their family when not working and however small a window of time, they need to ensure it is quality time being spent where they are fully available.  

Love is not a feeling. It is an act of the will.

So my encouragement to you is this:

Keep choosing to love.

Luke 10:25-27:  

‘On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” ’

>>>“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Pet. 4:8);

>>>“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Eph. 4:2);

>>>“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud…” (1 Cor. 13:4-8).