Beloved

"My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come. Arise my beautiful one, and come away." 

 I've been thinking a lot lately about a very familiar but not so universally embraced idea: what it means to be the beloved, the bride of Christ. There are lots of reasons why we need to be careful with these analogies as we apply them to God, but it is an analogy presented by scripture so we are right to consider it. Tell me: when you first started falling in love or when you think of your family hundreds of miles away at home, or when you sorely miss a friend who has passed away - do you not feel an urge to see their face again, to hear their voice - just one more time, to share one more conversation?  Do you not ache to bask in the light of their smile and rest, if only for a moment, in their warm and loyal embrace? 

Maybe all this is too mushy for you. You aren't in love and don't want to be. You've steeled yourself to the realities of death. Home and family are places full of hurt and distrust. At the risk of sounding harsh, I'm realizing that since such things are only whispers of a deeper longing, their absence is sad but not fatal. You may not wish to dance with your beloved. You may not know the deep rest of home. You may not be able to think of a single face you ache to see. But you long for joy. You long to be understood truly and respected deeply. You long for solidity. You long to be a part of something real and bigger than yourself. Or at least these are things that I long for. We long for eternal wonder. We long for perfection. We long for order and adventure and rest - all at once and in infinite quantity. 

So are we willing to encounter the fulfillment of these longings in their daunting Reality? Are we ready to absorb the full weight of the knowledge that such eternal wonder and perfection and power and loyalty and respect and truth and solidity and rest and joy find their source in Christ...and that this God has chosen you as his bride. He made His love to you indisputably clear by laying down his life to purchase your freedom. And he calls to you, "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away!" Come away and find all that you need and all you truly desire! Are we willing to wait with eager anticipation for this final fulfillment which His love promises? And in the meantime do we seek to know Him better with the exuberance we pursue our earthly loves? Do we wake in the morning saying, "Let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely." Can we declare truthfully, "I sought Him whom my soul loves"? And do we lie down to sleep, evaluating the difficulties of the past day and the responsibilities of the days ahead in light of the reality that "my Beloved is mine and I am His"? Through His grace in us and His righteousness over us, may we learn to be lovers worthy of such a Beloved!

(All Scripture from the English Standard Version, Song of Solomon 2 & 3)