Jesus wants more than a card

"Men don't know anything about this, do they?" said the pharmacy clerk as I stood by helplessly and watched my adolescent daughter peruse the cosmetics aisle last week.

I had managed to live 48 years without spending any time at all in this distinctly foreign territory, replete with mascara, blush, eyeliner, liquid nails, et al. Hundreds of expensive lotions and powders. A world with which I am scarcely familiar. With amazement, gazing open-mouthed at the endless plethora of beauty products, I heard myself exclaim, "Who knew?"

Well, women do, of course. And they pass this information on to their daughters without Dad even being aware of the transfer. How is it that the male of the species is so out of the loop?

It's quite a mystery, isn't it? Husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, living in proximity -- sometimes for many years -- yet the gender divide is never truly bridged. Sometimes that chasm is brought home when you are observing your 12-year-old looking for foundation.

Wednesday is Valentine's Day, a holiday based on stories that may be apocryphal. One of these possibly inauthentic stories has it that during a ban on marriage for Roman soldiers during the time of Emperor Claudius II, Valentine secretly arranged marriages.

The penalty for such clandestine weddings? Martyrdom.

Whatever the origins of the St. Valentine legend, the practice of sending and giving cards has endured. The Greeting Card Association estimates a billion Valentine cards are sent annually, second only to Christmas. The GCA estimates nearly all of those cards -- 85 percent -- are sent by women.

If I may speak, perhaps inadvisedly, for those of my gender, men tolerate Valentine's Day. We see it as obligation, as a duty. If we know what's good for us, we'll remember the women in our lives on that day. Women, according to all empirical evidence, feel somewhat more strongly about Feb. 14.

Whether you send Valentine's Day cards or not, it is generally accepted that such messages are meant to convey good wishes and warm thoughts of caring.

It's interesting to me that Jesus, according to the Gospels, wasn't particularly interested in merely hearing people say they loved him. Can you imagine Jesus' reaction to receiving a greeting card conveying words of love and admiration?

By selectively examining the words written of his life, we can deduce his probable reaction. In ways that cannot easily be dismissed, Jesus seems to say that if you love him, you must do what he says. Good wishes and warm thoughts don't cut it.

"Do you love me?" Jesus asked Peter. "Lord, you know that I love you," the apostle replies. "Then feed my sheep." (John 21:15-17) Act. Do what I tell you.

"If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:15) Act. Do what I tell you.

I'm not a Valentine card sender. I'm not opposed to it. I'm a guy. It just doesn't occur to me. But it does matter to a lot of people, and I will not impugn the practice.

But Jesus, it's clear, wants something more than a card. Something more than good wishes and warm thoughts. He wants action. He demands obedience.

So when it comes to Jesus, we ought to save the stamp and just try to do what he says. That's a Valentine's Day message he'll remember.

Jeff Long is pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. Married with two daughters, he is of Scots and Swedish descent, loves movies and is a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.