So, today I sit at my desk and it is Valentine’s Day. When you read this article, it will be the week after Valentine’s, Fe br u ary 21st. I’m not a big sentime n talist. I don’t go for the gooey love story movies or books. When the kids were small we always made sure they had a heart of chocolates and a card. I have been up many a Valentine’s Eve cutting, sorting, selecting and signing Valentine’s Day cards with the kids for school the next day and the infamous Valentine’s party.
When I was dating (like a jillion years ago), I was a little more into the love theme behind the holiday. I was somewhat a romantic guy in the courting days. The flower shops in my home town knew me by name. I was a strong supporter of the chocolate industry as well as the greeting card enterprises. In recent years I may have fallen in decline a little.
I was pondering the whole Valentine’s Day holiday complete with the love, jewelry, chocolate, stuffed animal, greeting cards and…. the list just keeps going on! My question that came to me last night was, “How much do we spend on love?”
Well according to google (because google has the answer for everything, maybe not right but an answer non the less) the average price for love is (drum roll here)…$193…per person! (Over $26 billion last year.) Now, I may have fallen a little behind the curve on this one. What do we spend that money on? Let me share a few of the things we spend money on for the one(s) we love.
Top would have to be flowers, roses in specific. Last year 250 million roses were sold at an average of $10/rose or around $89 for a dozen of them (nationally). Google also says we will spend $2.6 billion for all flowers on Valentine’s Day (carnations, azaleas, orchids, tulips, lilies and more).
There is $5.5 billion spent on jewelry. Rings being a big item (engagement). Pave diamond heart rings along with diamond hoop necklaces, yellow gold bracelets and a set of heart ear-rings are top in the jewelry category.
Candy is also at the top of the list for gifts given. Remember those conversation hearts? The candy ones with little one line or even a few word messages on them. There are 8 billion of them sold each year. The favorite though, is the heart shaped box of chocolates. There will be 36 million boxes of them sold to a whopping tune of 58 million dollars. (FYI, first heart shaped chocolate box produced by none other than Richard Cadbury, not Hershey or Nestle, in 1868.)
Hallmark, American Greeting and Dayspring (just to name a few) have Valentine cards that are quite appealing to the love struck and parents for kids. Around 145 million are purchased and sent out. This is second only to Christmas!
Adding to the Valentine love theme we add six million marriage proposals and 600+ weddings are performed on this day of love.
One statistic that surprised me was recorded in 2020 on this day. 27.6 million people gave Valentine presents to their dogs while only 17.1 million people gave Valentine gifts to their cats! The combined spending this year will total $2.14 billion. My pooch and kitty should probably feel neglected as they received… nothing again this year.
All of this for one day a year and for an expression of love. We spend millions, I mean billions, to show spouses, children, friends, pets or companions we love them.
But none of this will express the love given to us as the most extreme Valentine of all. God gave an expression of love and paying the ultimate price for it. He gave His son, Jesus, to die on a cross for us to have eternal life in heaven with Him. AND this gift was given only once. It is not repeated each year. The cost has never changed. It remains available to all for the taking.
Scripture says “God demonstrated His own love toward us…” God sent us a Valentine on a cross and asked us to “Be Mine.” All we have to do is accept this gift by faith. See, it’s not a competition on who spends the most or the most spent means we love more. We can never top the price God spent to show His love for us. Now that is love!
Pondering the Cost of Love Bro. Tim
