The other day, my three year old daughter Willow told me that it “wasn’t Valentine’s Day” anymore. I chuckled and then asked her, “well, what day IS it, Willow?” She didn’t quite know, so she looked around and saw that Liz and the other girls had put up some shamrock decorations for St. Patrick’s day. As she saw those, she looked at me and quickly replied, “It’s LEAF day!”
Just as St. Patrick’s day is more than just a leaf day, it is also more than green beer or pinching people who have the audacity to not wear green. It’s not just leprechauns and rainbows. Instead, the story of St. Patrick the amazing story of how God used someone to overcome hate with love.
St. Patrick was born in England during the time of Irish raids. During one of those raids, St Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken back to Ireland. Patrick was only in Ireland for some time before he was able to escape in a small boat and make it back to England. While in England now, he devoted his life to studying for the priesthood. It was during this time that he felt God speak clearly to him, but the message wasn’t one that Patrick probably wanted to hear – God was telling him to go and spread the Gospel in Ireland of all places.
Nevertheless, dutiful Patrick packed up his bags and went to Ireland as a missionary. It turns out that Patrick was a very effective missionary, converting many pagans to Christianity, showing them the real forgiveness of Christ mirrored in his own forgiveness of his captors.
Don’t let St Patrick’s day just be a “leaf” day to you. Let it be a reminder of the overwhelming love of Christ and how forgiveness can do amazing things in the least expected places.