More Amour!

Well February is upon us - the month for Luuuurve! (Well how else do you do a Barry White impression in print?) Valentines day is nearly upon us and before long a whole aisle of Asda will go red with hearts and cards and vastly overpriced red roses. Sadly one of the extra elements creeping into Valentines day in recent years is also red, but has horns and a trident. Not content with Halloween the demon is mounting a takeover bid for the feast of St Valentine. Cute cuddly demons - talking of "being naughty" or "wicked" but an image of a demon nonetheless.

So what about poor old St Valentine - what has he got to do with Luuurve? Well, not much really. The 5th Century Pope who established the feast in Valentine's honour said his acts of courage were "known only unto God" and all the legends about Valentine arose in the middle ages when he became associated with romantic love. So why celebrate the day at all?

I'd like to suggest two reasons - firstly I don't think I'm ready yet to abandon St Valentine to be the patron saint of cuddly demons and secondly I think that a day when we celebrate all that is best about romantic love is no bad thing. After all romance (and its ensuing activities) were God's idea in the first place - He created us male and female - He gives us guidance on the ways in which this sort of love should be expressed and He made sure that the Song of Songs was included in scripture.

So this February let's avoid the demons and celebrate God's wonderful gift of love - given to men and women to enjoy together.