“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” Song of Songs 7:10
Lord Jesus, if this Scripture was just a simile, analogy, or metaphor, it’d still be awesome. But, hallelujah, it isn’t. It’s more literally true than we can imagine, “get,” or realize. Though we struggle to believe it, this is the intensity with which you love us in the Gospel.
We are those upon your affection is focused and fixed, the bride for whom you lived and died, the cherished ones for whom you’re returning with passion and joy.
Jesus, make this good news real to us—more real than anything else in history and the cosmos. At its best, human romance and marriage are a wonderful hint and expression of your great love for us. Affairs are snake-infested mirages in the desert of loneliness. Multiplied toys and money are “Turkish Delight” with evaporating delight and no Narnia. Power and position are an ego-dance that inevitably become a funeral dirge.
Forgive us for thinking any person, acclaim, or form of “stuff” can satisfy the longings you put in us for yourself. Forgive us for being willing to settle for substitutes and counterfeits. Forgive us for under-believing the Gospel, and over-believing our fears, lust, and loneliness.
Jesus, dazzle us afresh with your beauty, goodness, and truth. Only your love is better than life. Only your love is enough. Only your love will never let go of us. Only you are worth our next and last breath. So Very Amen