Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day


So I was reading the Song of Solomon because I wanted to send it in a love letter to my wife for Valentine's Day.

...bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts...

...A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed....

...I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the
boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;

And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that
goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.

You want to tell me that all that is is "beautiful metaphor for Christ and His bride, the Church?" Obviously whoever thought that up isn't married and/or has never had great sex. Sorry to make any young readers uncomfortable but this one-long-erotic-poem of a book of the Bible is proof that God loves us and that He created sex.

On the other hand... its also a good example of how sometimes we can't relate to the metaphors of the ancient contributors to Scripture. Consider this illustration from 'Wittenburg Door' magazine on what the lover would look like if one takes the Song of Songs literally:
Of course, just because it contains passages about what many up-tight Christians (cough Baptist- cough) consider deviant and perverted forms of foreplay, and just because its word-pictures seem a bit ridiculously out dated today, it is also a beautiful metaphor for Christ's love for us too. Really. No, really it is. I know its hard to tell when I'm beinf sarcastic or ironic and when I'm not, but it really is. Really. God's weird that way, He's very multi-faceted. Really.

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