SOS (Song of Songs)

2:10-14

Get up, my dear friend
fair and beautiful – come to me!
Look around you: Winter is over;
the winter rains are over, gone!
Spring flowers are in blossom all over.
the whole world’s a choir – and singing!
Spring warblers are filling the forest
with sweet arpeggios.
Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed,
and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms.
Oh, get up, dear friend,
my fair and beautiful lover – come to me!
Come, my shy and modest dove –
leave your seclusion, come out in the open.
Let me see your face,
let me hear your voice.
For your voice is soothing
and your face is ravishing.

This is the scripture that God asked me to meditate on Sunday morning. At first, I thought, “Man! If some guy I was interested in were to say these words to me I might just turn to putty. That’s some dangerous stuff!”

Then I heard Jesus say, “I’m saying these words to you …”

Oh.

I have to admit that it’s even more potent a message when it comes from Jesus. He’s had me park in the Song of Songs quite a bit since moving to KC. I guess there’s almost no better place to truly learn just how He feels about me.

There are so many words of promise in these verses that are pertinent to where I am today. For instance, just thinking of the terms of endearment that the Lover calls his Beloved – my dear friend, fair and beautiful lover, shy and modest dove – all of these speak to me. Then there’s the words of hope in the midst of what has been one of the hardest seasons of my life – “Winter is over … Spring flowers are in blossom”. There’s the "coincidence" that I see in the fact that I pretty much wear two types of perfume (because most other scents induce headaches for me) and one is the scent of cherry blossoms, the other uses lilacs.

Then there’s the invitation – “leave your seclusion, come out in the open.” God’s been challenging me to stop hiding for the last few months and I haven’t known what that meant or what it looked like in my case to stop hiding. Here it is again. I’m still not 100% sure, but it looks like I’m about to find out.