I am authoring this article on the night of Valentine’s. It is also the night of my birthday. While I am very thankful for another year, for health, for God’s wisdom and the gift of patience. While I am glowing with the blessings of another birthday, I am also sad. Sad with the remembrance that on this day my mother died while giving birth to me.
The words “greater love had no man” resonates deeply with me each birthday. I think about the many who sacrificed their life so that others can have a better life. Every soldier who goes to war so that his or her country would survive to be the home of the many. The trades that put their life at risk like wiremen , police personnel and medical personnel. I often wonder what my mother thought in the moments before she died looking at the new born.
She died at home from haemorrhage associated with childbirth. Would she had willingly given her life so that her child could live?
Life is precious, time is precious. The greatest contribution one can make to this beautiful universe is to love. On this Valentine’s Day love is in focus, that love is demonstrated by the many white hats and others that struggle through the cold, the smell and the risk to assist in finding people dead or alive in the ruins of Syria and Türkiye. It is demonstrated by teachers who prepare daily to impart knowledge and mould the minds of the many children they serve. It is demonstrated by the parents that give up on their own happiness to ensure their children have a chance of a happier life that they did.
It is on days like this that I wonder about the politicians that seem to go out of their way to make others unhappy. They fail, in effective policing to make the community safe but succeed in roadblocks to hand out tickets for seatbelts. They fail in getting tax returns to customers on time but automatically charge interest for each day that one fails to pay taxes. They fail to deliver water to the many reliably, but efficiently bill customers for a product they do not receive.
Why can’t we see the brotherhood of man? Why can’t we commit to making life better for all, including the elderly, the children, the infirmed and the under privileged? Why can’t we see the Creator’s plan and design in the creation of mankind and celebrate our diversity rather than assume that we are better than another?
And on this beautiful day, take time to see, really see the beauty of our partner, the one we love and wish to spend the rest of our life with. See the beauty they bring into your life, appreciate the laughter, the happiness of family and friends and see the plan of our Creator to help us find peace and happiness. Happy Valentine’s.
God Bless Our Nation.
Steve Alvarez