One of themes in the Song of Solomon is the Lover calling out to his beloved to let him inside her heart. "You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain." (NIV).
While the context may describe a natural yearning between husband and wife it can also can speak of our own hearts in the context of God, our Lover and Friend.
What are those good things that God has planted in our hearts that under His nourishing care are for His pleasure? But when He attempts to enter we seize up in fear. We are enclosed and have securely bolted the gates to our hearts to prevent Him entering inside. We may argue to why we keep Him on the outside. We are ashamed. What we will He find and what will He say if all that is good is gone?
One evening the Lover attempted to enter the Beloved's chamber. She protested saying it was too late. She had washed and dressed for bed so she didn't rise to answer the door. He even tried to unbolt the latch (5:4). This is the same Lord who says in Revelation 3:20, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." Faith is the meal that nourishes the Lord when we can trust Him in those places that are most tender, bruised or broken.
As she reaches for the door her fingers are coated with myrrh (5:5). Myrrh is a aromatic resin that requires wounding the trees repeatedly to bleed them of the gum. Myrrh is symbolic of bitterness. Beloved, how often have we wounded Christ by refusing Him to enter the most intimate spaces in our lives?
Places we are ashamed to have Him to see though nothing is hidden from His lovely eyes. The intimate places were often other loves and desires have entered - sometimes too freely. Other so call loves may have violated and polluted our garden. Others took us lightly without respect and care. We were to be handled and used for only what we can offer. Still others may have filled those places for a season with joy and laughter but left us wanting much more than they could ever give. I think of Mary who in her sorrow mistaken Christ as the gardener who she thought took the body of Christ. Until He spoke her name she saw him only as another man who stole something from her life.
At the end of the song her friends describe the Beloved as being a tower and a wall (8:9). She in turn responds, "But my vineyard is mine to give, and Solomon need not pay a thousand pieces of silver. But I will give two hundred pieces to those who care for its vines." (8:12, NLT). She understood that her life was not her own. Her willingness to give it to the One who loved her was of a greater value.
For you see it was not her garden that mattered as much as for her to enter into the heart of Christ. His heart is the most beautiful garden that is possessed by faith when He possesses us. It's time for us to open our hearts to Him and let Him come inside. An unlocked heart is a welcoming place for Him to cultivate a love so rich and deep all you can do is swing wide the gate and let the King of Glory enter inside. Then our hearts will be enlarged and full like His own!
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