Epic Love

How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how beautiful!
Your eyes behind your veil are doves.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
descending from Mount Gilead.
Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep,
which have come up from the washing.
Each has its twin;
not one of them is alone.


Your lips are like scarlet ribbon;
your mouth is lovely.
Your temples behind your veil
are like the halves of a pomegranate.
Your neck is like the tower of David,
built with elegance;
on it hang a thousand shields,
all of them shields of mighty men.
Your two breasts are like two fawns,
like twin fawns of a gazelle
that feed among the lilies.


Until the day breaks
and the shadows flee,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh
and to the hill of incense.
You are all fair, my love;
there is no flaw in you.
Song of Solomon 4:1-7


My goal over the next year or so is to read through the whole Bible. Last week I read Song of Solomon. As I was thinking about what we have come to understand about Song of Solomon and the songs (and/or psalms) that Solomon wrote. I realized how true these words could be in so many ways. When we see someone we love and truly love them with our whole heart, we look at the good things; their best qualities. When we truly desire to express to someone how we feel about them we don't say, "well, I don't like that you do this or you should be more this." We instead talk about their flawless qualities (as Solomon does in his letter), we talk about those qualities that first attracted us to the person to begin with, the delightful things we see as we spend time with that person. Yes, we may see and acknowledge those qualities that are not so fair and beautiful but we don't focus on them. I think this is how God sees us, He recognizes our flaws but desires to focus on those beautiful qualities that He has created in us.


There are a few different theories about the love letter in Song of Solomon. Some believe it was written from a man to a woman, while others believe it is an allegorical representation of our relationship with God, while still others connect it with the relationship between God and the nation of Israel, and some see it as the reflection of Christ and His church. However, no matter how you see it or from who to whom it is written. The words written are of the feeling behind a relationship, metaphors of how things look in the eyes of the loved and beloved. Maybe this is why I find this passage so interesting because if focuses on the meaning and feeling behind the words. It is an epic example of the perpetual delight in a relationship of love. A love that we all seek and desire from a relationship. One that is right in front of our face, yet feels out of our grasp at times. The Song of Solomon love seems to encompass the aspect of creation and the simple concept of all created life being both holy and blessed, including human sexuality.

I feel our world has polluted this concept of love within human sexuality. Instead of encompassing all aspects of love, the secular world, and even Christians look just at the physical and emotional. Maybe part of this has to do with the same reason that we forget to look at the meaning behind words or the intent behind a picture. We only see what we see with our eyes, instead of the underneath. My life has been impacted by this physical aspect of love or maybe I should say the lack of love in the physical; the exploitation, controlling, pleasure seeking aspect in the disillusionment of the physical. But as I read Song of Solomon, I could picture in my head how much more there is to love than just the physical, how much more there is to God's creation, and how much more there is to the simple word beauty. I realized that I don't want to focus just on the love in the physical or the emotional need for love, but I also want to remember the love in creation, the meaning behind the words, and the metaphorical delights found in taking pleasure in an epic love that has no end. A love that doesn't stop with the physical and emotional, but instead also touches the spiritual, bring back the delight in God's creation and recognizing the purity in true beauty.