Letters from your Lover

Have you ever gotten a love letter from your girlfriend or boyfriend? With every passing day, technology invents a new form of communication. Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and a host of other inventive apps have made communication at our fingertips more attainable than ever. Even still, for my money the written word on the page will never be out of style. There is something special about the time committed to careful thought and precise wording that communicates love and affection in a deeper way than any mobile app ever could. Whether it's the reruns of the Notebook or the hidden pages of a diary, nothing can replace the joy of ripping open the love letter to behold the beauty of the written word from the heart of those we adore. There is nothing better than getting a sweet note of affirmation from your significant other. Even a note of encouragement to your kids in their lunchbox can brighten their day and give them a pick me up. I’m not talking about the generic and sappy hallmark card filled with flowery, but impersonal words, I mean a genuine well thought out card of genuine appreciation and adoration to the love of your life. At the risk of having to trade in my man-card for a pink shirt, I will make a confession. Last year on Valentines day, I went and got a ring of index cards and wrote a love letter to my wife corresponding to every letter of the alphabet, it was my own creative spin on love letters…for those of you playing at home, no I did not get the idea from pinterest.

Maybe it’s because my love language is words of affirmation or maybe I’m just overly sappy and emotional, but every time I receive a love letter from my bride, it puts a spring in my step. But what if God wrote you a love letter? I mean how incredible would it be if you got in the mail a package with the return address:

1 Golden Street

Celestial Square, Heaven, 77777

In the package was a letter personally written to you! Well, I’m not sure that USPS picks up in heaven and I’m almost positive there isn’t a FedEx-Kinkos or UPS store in the New Jerusalem, but He did give you a love letter…it’s called the Bible.

Now before you roll your eyes at me in delusional disgust, think about it for a moment. If I understand my Bible right, according to Ephesians chapter 5, earthly marital relationships are meant to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and His church. Marriage is an earthly illustration of a heavenly reality. It is a living, breathing picture of Christ as the bridegroom and His church as His bride. So if this is what the marriage is supposed to represent, then everything within that marriage, and all the love and affection we feel inside it, is supposed to remind us of the love affair with our bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

When you think of that way, then your time spent with God will be transformed from something you do occasionally to get rid of the guilt in your heart, and it will become refreshing, life-giving stolen moments of sweet ecstasy and wonderful intimacy with the Lover of our soul.

This is what the time on my front porch in the quietness of the morning has become for me and recently it has deepened as I began to read the book of Song of Solomon. This was one of those pg-13 books that never got preached on or talked about because it was a little too racy, and little too risqué for our conservative surroundings. It’s one of those books that make our little baptist faces blush because this brother is absolutely wrecked and smitten with this girl and she is head-over heels for her man. But theologically, on a grander scale because of the physical relationship between a man and his wife is supposed to remind us of a grander love story, we could think of this story as the relationship between Christ and His church as well, and when you read Song of Solomon 2 through that lens, what a wildly fantastic love affair it is.

The Song is a dialogue back and forth between the man and his bride, so if we are going to make the parallel Jesus is the bridegroom and we are the bride then we can see how the “HE” portions are as if God was speaking to us, and the “SHE” portions are our response. This is where things really get beautiful, watch the letter unfold with beauty.

3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest

is my beloved among the young men.

I delight to sit in his shade,

and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

She called Him the apple tree which is symbolic of strength and beauty in verse 3. How often I have come to sit under the shade of His refuge, worn out from the heat of the desert. Overwhelmed by the storms of my life and the people and circumstances that rage around me, I have found Him to be a place of peaceful refuge. I take pleasure in sitting with Him and tasting the delicacies of His word, how sweet they are to my taste. How often I have filled my thoughts and my mind with the fruit of His promises, that He will never leave me or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5), that He will finish what He started (Philippians 1:6), that all things will work together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28), that His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).

4 Let him lead me to the banquet hall,

and let his banner over me be love.

He has carried me to the banquet hall of fellowship where deepest intimacy through prayer is found and has spread His banner of protection about me while speaking to me of His love and peace.

6 His left arm is under my head,

and his right arm embraces me.

Oh, when I think of what it took to embrace me! He took my punishment of death for my sin to embrace this dead bride and He took her up in His arms and embraced her as HIs own. He choose a worthless sinner like me and made me His bride. “And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own…” Praise His name!

8 Listen! My beloved!

Look! Here he comes,

leaping across the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

Nothing can stop the raging tide of His love, there is no valley too deep, no mountain too wide that the Lover of my soul will not span in an instant to rescue me, to come to me, to meet with me.

9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.

Look! There he stands behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

peering through the lattice.

10 My beloved spoke and said to me,

“Arise, my darling,

my beautiful one, come with me.

11See! The winter is past;

the rains are over and gone.

12 Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves

is heard in our land.

13 The fig tree forms its early fruit;

the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling;

my beautiful one, come with me.”

This one about caused me to have church on my front porch. He stands behind the walls that we have erected, they are our walls. I wonder what walls have you built between you and your beloved bridegroom? I can tell you mine, walls of bitterness, of anger, of busyness, of apathy. Behind those walls stand the One who loves you infinitely! And outside of your walls, winter is turning to spring, darkness is turning to day, birds are singing, flowers are blooming and He whispers “come, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.” Jesus is inviting us into the spring of His provision, into the beauty of the morning, to behold the beauty of what God has planned for us, and yet we sit imprisoned behind the walls of our bitterness, the walls of our shame, the walls of our guilt, when outside our door is our faithful Lover who longs to take us by the hand and carry us to fields of beauty and grace that we have never discovered…goodness.

14 My dove in the clefts of the rock,

in the hiding places on the mountainside,

show me your face,

let me hear your voice;

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is lovely.

Jesus has hidden us in the cleft of the rock like He did Moses and revealed His glory to us, now He whispers to us “Show me your face, let me hear your voice…” Think of it the God of all Creation longs to hear us! He waits for us, He has made every provision for us to spend time with Him and He invites us into intimacy, into communion with Him and somehow we can’t find the time?! What is so important in our puny little lives that would cause us to miss a date with our King?

15 Catch for us the foxes,

the little foxes

that ruin the vineyards,

our vineyards that are in bloom.

He invites us to root out the little foxes in our lives that ruin the vineyard. What little foxes in your life have ruined the beauty of the vineyards of your soul? Is it apathy, is it complacency, is it a hidden sin? Root it out so the time spent with Your betrothed may come to you without obstacle.

The beauty in this passage, the personal nature of it, at first may seem uncomfortable, but what a time of refreshing it was for me. I invite you to read the Song in it's entirety, let it minister to you deeply. Press into the silence and breathe deeply the stolen moments away with the Lover of your soul. In closing, I’m reminded of a song that has become precious to me in these days. It’s called “He waits for me” by a group called “Consumed by Fire.” You can listen to it here May the dawn find you down by the water communing with Your Savior.

There's a place I go

when I need a getaway

there's a peace I know

that soothes the soul

And this life I've found

I know it's not my own

so when I run to you

it's like I'm running home

where I find peace

I find my way

down by the water

He waits for me

where I find strength for each and every day

joy in the midst of any pain

I believe down by the water

He waits for me

so if you're rollin' the dice

and just tryin to make it through

there are hands that are reaching out for you

and if you're holding back tears

and just trying to be strong

there's a place that is calling out for you

this is the place that I'm always running to