What If . . .

"Lord, arise."
"Come, Lord."
"I want to see You; I want to hear Your voice."
"Your voice is sweet; Your face, lovely."
"O Lord, You're beautiful.  Your face is all I seek."

How many times have I sung or somehow voiced the above thoughts? Honestly, I cannot even begin to guess the number of times I've expressed these sentiments. Hopefully, I was serious and not just mouthing the words while thinking about something or someone else.

However, today I do not want to concentrate on my words of love toward God but on His to me, to all of us.  Oh yes, He does say and has been saying these same words of love to us since the beginning of the world.  He has always been keen on relationship with us.  He created us for relationship with Him above all else.

Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon, is an very intimate story of a man and a woman and of their love, courtship, and marriage.  On a symbolic level, their story reflects His-story, God's story of love for His people.

This story features a love dialogue between a simple Jewish maiden and her lover along with comments by friends.  Through this dialogue, these lovers describe in intimate details their feelings for each other and their longings to be together.  It's a truly beautiful story to read and to study. 

Sometimes, our thoughts and our prayers and our songs focus on what we want and what we perceive.  In the Song of Songs, God gives us an exquisite glimpse of His desires through the words of these lovers.  Surprisingly, God's words to us sound very similar to our own words to Him.

For instance, the lover says, "Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come away." (2:10)  Here the lover's desire is for his beloved to drop what she is doing and to go be with him, just with him. 

God also wants us to take time away from everything just to be with Him.  He loves spending time with us.  He longs for a date.

Lanny and I have been married almost 39 years, and we still have trouble scheduling "date night."  This world and its "stuff and responsibilities" will come between earthly lovers and between us and our Heavenly Lover unless we are vigilant and make the most of the time we have. 

Another thing I noticed was the lovers' little endearments, nicknames.  People in love call each other names, hopefully good ones.  Often these names are derived from what one sees in the other.  The lover in Song of Songs calls the one he loves beloved, darling, fair or beautiful one.  Both of them compare the other to things in nature, things that are strong or swift or fragrant or tasty.  

I believe that these words of endearment reflect how God views us.  I believe He sees us as His beloved, His darling, His beautiful one.  None of us like to give someone a compliment only to have it shrugged off with a "He's just saying that.  He doesn't really mean it."  God longs for us to believe Him, to embrace His sweet words to us, to forget what others say and concentrate on what He alone says.
He speaks and sings words of love over us continually.

Furthermore, these lovers longed to see each other's face and to hear each other's voice. (2:14) God longs to see our face and to hear our voice.  We are important to Him, precious to Him.  Nothing in our lives is trivial to Him.  Yes, He knows everything that's going on in our lives, but He still wants us to talk to Him about it.  Not only does He want us to share everything about our lives with Him, but He also calls us lovely and says that the sound of our voice is sweet.

God has it bad for us, really bad, bad enough to make a way for us to be together forever.  How awesome is that?

Our lives are a crucible filled with joys and trials which are really just divine opportunities to love God with everything we have and are.  Each moment of every day, He speaks and calls us to come away and be with Him, to share our life with Him.  He longs for us to listen to and believe His words of encouragement, hope, comfort, correction, and love.

Many times in scripture we see the word wait in a context where we are the ones doing the waiting.  God also waits on us. 

But the Lord still waits for you to come to Him

so He can show you His love and compassion. 

For He is faithful. 

Blessed are those who wait for Him.

Isaiah 30:18 

God is always thinking about us.  He longs to be gracious to us.  I don't know how He does it, and I don't know how He can put up with us, but He does.  There is no way that He can forget about us. 

I will not forget you! 

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. 

Isaiah 49: 15-16 

Oh, what a precious word!
May we not keep Him waiting.

You cannot weary my love.

For though you have forgotten me,

I have not forgotten you.

Whilst you have busied yourselves

with your daily occupations,

I have still been occupied with you.

When your mind has been captured

by the affairs of this life,

my thoughts have been of you.

My beloved,

you cannot weary my love.

 

From Come Away, My Beloved

By Frances Roberts