day no. 14,107: "did God really say?" and other idol speculations

http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/the-shack-by-william-p-young

Beware of whom or what you may meet in The Shack, it may be more (or less) than for what you bargained.

day no. 14,106: four words from my daughters i long to hear, "i was a wall."

Song of Solomon 8:9-10

Others

If she is a wall,

we will build on her a battlement of silver,

but if she is a door,

we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She

I was a wall,

and my breasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who finds peace.

If your daughter is a door, you will exhaust your efforts keeping others from gaining entrance, but if she is a wall, you get to spend your energy adorning her.

You can do your best to put walls up, but if she is a door, you are compelled to keep her out of view, but if she is a wall, you feel the freedom to spend your time decorating her for all to see and expect any challenge to be met first by her ferocious contentment in the God you both worship.

Better than building a wall to protect something precious is discovering its dignity protects itself: full of discernment and safety, equipped by God in the inner woman to defend herself against enemy attacks by an untouchable, unmatched beauty.

day no. 14,105: love is an indomitable flame

Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Set me as a seal upon your heart,

as a seal upon your arm,

for love is strong as death,

jealousy is fierce as the grave.

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

the very flame of the Lord.

Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can floods drown it.

If a man offered for love

all the wealth of his house,

he would be utterly despised.

Whatever love is, it is equally as certain as death. As sure as the grave waits patiently, so love perseveres resiliently. It is an indomitable flame unquenched by rapids or deluge. It will not be snuffed. It cannot be tamped. It burns without consuming its source. It is inexhaustible. Any attempt to limit it or quantify it down to the penny is perverse and met with the open rebuke of "ignorance!" to the prospective haggler.

day no. 14,104: pasture is only as free as its fences

Song of Solomon 5:1b

Eat, friends, drink,

and be drunk with love!

This is the time to get carried away because it's safe to do so. Pasture is only as free as its fences. Without barriers, it's merely unattended wilderness, but once walls are raised, it becomes a sanctuary.

day no. 14,103: where the bride metaphor breaks down

Song of Solomon 4:16-5:1a

Let my beloved come to his garden,

and eat its choicest fruits.

I came to my garden, my sister, my bride,

I gathered my myrrh with my spice,

I ate my honeycomb with my honey,

I drank my wine with my milk.

Much of the language of love from Solomon's best serenade can be translated into the covenantal language of Jesus and His bride. But maybe let's hold off on applying that script too quickly to stuff like this. There is a part of literal, physical marriage that has profound figurative and spiritual implications. Oneness is both a physical act and a state of being, but one of those two things will occur between me and Jesus and the other most certainly will not.

day no. 14,102: possessing and presenting completely

Song of Solomon 4:12

A garden locked is my sister, my bride,

a spring locked, a fountain sealed..

The locks of a private garden are not simply a challenge for one's conquest, but a commitment to its cultivation. The lock that limits access is the key that makes possessing another and presenting oneself completely a possibility.

day no. 14,101: actual flaws really overlooked

Song of Solomon 4:7

You are altogether beautiful, my love;

there is no flaw in you.

Love is not blind, it is benevolent. It is not ignorant of imperfection, it is rather insistent upon its preference. It can sincerely say that it finds no flaw in the object of its affection because its very choice provides cover enough to conceal a multitude of flaws.