Song of Songs

Yesterday before I went to sleep, well before I turned out the light and lay in bed trying to get to sleep for about two hours, I was reading a certain book in the Bible called the Song of Songs, which left me with a lot of thoughts. Thoughts that I have been thinking a lot about over the last week thanks to great conversations with great friends and great blog entries!! Anyway, Song of Songs is a whole book describing the love between Lover and his Beloved, but its not just a story, it has millions of underlying messages and jewels of wisdom hidden between the lines. Here’s what I got out of it (and I’m sure its only a tiny tiny fraction of its real meaning):

Passion is God-made too.
The Bible having this book in itself is a testimony to that. There is nothing wrong with it. God gave us the ability to love a member of the opposite sex passionately BUT purely. And the BUT is big so obviously there are conditions.
The conditions.
The book of Ecclesiastes says there is a time for everything under the sun. So there must be a time for passion too. That’s the condition. Twice in Song of Songs, and it seems in the most awkward points, the Beloved says, “I charge you: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.” So time is essential, there are no specific age limits but there is a specific time for each person, and we are not to forcefully awaken that feeling before the time is right.
The role of women.
Interestingly, the Beloved charges the “Daughters of Jerusalem.” She charges women not to arouse or awaken love until it so desires and not men. Why? On first reading that, it seems unfair. Why should women be blamed and are not men just as much to blame!? But its not a blame game, men are to be responsible but a woman has the key to unlock those feelings in a man by nature. Think about it, if it wasn’t for Eve’s existence, how could Adam ever feel passion for a woman? And we are the daughters of Eve so we are meant to be appealing to men by nature so we have to be careful not to accentuate that appeal by our actions. Look at it this way; your actions and your appeal have an exponential relationship. So we need to realize our power, women. Like the famous line in Spiderman goes and rings true: “With great power comes great responsibility.” (!!!!)
The role of men.
Women were made to be your helper in good work. How will you thank her for that? How will you appreciate her? You are meant to protect women from gawking eyes and sleazes; not be them!! A woman is your sister if she is not your wife and even if she is your wife, she was sister first so protect her as you would your sister.