Love thoughts

I had some thoughts to share on love and Valentine's day last night, but things just didn't really go in that direction, so I thought I'd post them here.
I think the core idea of Valentine's Day is a good one--show by your actions and words how much the ones you love mean to you. Of course, Valentine's Day restricts this almost entirely to romantic love, about which the Bible has surprisingly little to say. Valentine's Day, while technically a Christian holiday, appears far more worldly than spiritual. Of course, of course, there's the blatant, crass materialism, but to focus on that is to ignore the more fundamental flaw in our celebration of this holiday. Our celebrations of Valentine's Day center around the people to whom we feel strong affection: husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, parents and children. Yet this holiday of love bears almost no relation to God's commands concerning love, specifically Matthew 5:46-47: "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"
The love we celebrate on Valentine's day is the love with which the world is totally familiar--eros, desire--not necessarily lust, but the desire to be around people whose company we enjoy, who make us feel good, people who build us up and care for us. We all like that. Heck, who minds buying a card for someone who makes us feel good? But the love to which Jesus calls us asks more than that--to love our enemies.
To get another great kick in the teeth, flip on over to 1 John 4:10- "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." To drive the point home, you can turn to Romans 5:8- " But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
When I think on these things, my love seems so paltry. As I've said many times, it's easy to love Wendy, and most of you guys for that matter, but would I die for your sins? Well, that's okay, I'm not asked to do that, but I am asked to love my enemies... That's really, really hard. Getting to Art's post, I'm not sure how to even begin to get to that point. I clearly can't do it on my own, but can I blame God for not getting me there sooner? That seems unlikely. For now, I'm going to suggest one more bit of scripture and leave you all to have a lovely day.

ps-Sorry if this post is a bit disjointed; I'm due for a nap.