Chosen

I recently read the book of Song of Solomon in my Bible studies. The authorship is attributed to King Solomon, but that is disputed by some. I’ve read that the book should be understood literally, and I’ve read that it is allegorical. Possibly, it is both; I don’t know.

The book itself is puzzling to me in its poetry, and yet, love, as I see it,appears to be the passionate theme from the beginning to end.

The woman, in her first few words, shares her dismay in that her skin in sun darkened. She’d become suntanned by being forced to work in the fields by her brothers. She lived in a society where the upper class, who did not work the fields, had fairer skin from being indoors. Their society prized the paler skin, for it represented affluence. From her comments, she seemed self conscious about her skin tone which exposed her lower social standing to those around her, especially to the man that she loved. She knew that she had beauty but that it was flawed. She had imperfection that was clear for all to see. She saw herself as “less than”. But she was wildly in love! That love caused her to be willing to trust the one that she loved with all her flaws. She knew that he loved her. Her identity then was not “less than” but “beloved”, and that identity allowed her to risk all simply because she knew that she was a “chosen one”.
I also am very flawed but greatly loved, anyway. My identity is not “rejected”, nor is it “unchosen”. My beauty is in the heart of the One who beholds me not through the narrow eyes of judgement but through the wide open gaze of wondrous, total acceptance. I don’t understand that kind of LOVE. I probably never will. But I rest in the identity of Whose I am. I am a woman wildly in love with the Lover of her soul. I can risk it all-the good, the bad, the ugly-because I know that I am also wildly loved by The One Who chooses to see me as His. How amazing is that?
A pondering today….