"The memory of the righteous is blessed" Proverbs 10:7
Today, Wednesday, April 10th. Happy Birthday to my beloved husband this day, as I celebrate today in memory of him with family and loved ones.
We have entered spring and as I look out my window this morning I wake to see the many trees still bare and still waiting for the newness of life to fill their branches and fulfill their continued purposes after the deadness of winter always promises new life. It is as a reminder to me of the cold winter season that has passed...but...I can see at a distance beyond these trees a glorious newness of vibrant green now beginning to cover the earth. Beyond these barren trees I can get glimpses of all the promises that spring brings...flowers appearing, new life springing forth, a sweet fragrance in the air. I am reminded this morning of all these things that the spring brings that reflect the heart and life of one who loves the Lord.
Yes, April has now come and we read of what the spring speaks of in the Bible, "for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away" Song of Solomon 2:11-13
As I pray and reflect on this day my heart is captured and overwhelmed with the blessing I have been given to have had 38 years with my husband. I am reflecting this morning on the love he has given me and God's love for me that continues and is unending. I thank God for the treasure he was to me. This past week has been filled with many twists and turns and there is a song that has been ministering to my heart that I have felt led to share with you below...a victory song for me of sorts. Listening again to it this morning it speaks of the greatest love known to all man. It speaks of my own relationship with God...words that express the heart of God. I am also reminded this morning of the song written in the Bible portraying a physical love but even greater a spiritual love that God has for us...this love song is found in the book of Song of Solomon.
I am remembering this day of a man who loved me. Always demonstrating his love for me. Loving me as Christ loved the church as we read of in Ephesians. This love led me spiritually and compelled me to love him likewise in a way that was not humanly possible aside from Christ...a love was deeper than my own abilities...a love that was of God.
This man loved his family and the simple things in life. He loved all he knew. He lived in contentment each day. He embraced each day and celebrated them all as gifts from God. He loved sports and especially baseball, the beach, dinners home, he loved the attributes of God seen all around him through God's creation, he loved coffee and couldn't wait each morning to meet with the Lord and send texts to his family and friends to remind them of Gods love for them and that he was praying for them each new day. He reminded my mom each year of his thankfulness to her by sending her roses on my birthday to tell her thank you for birthing me and giving me life, giving me to him. And how he loved his daughters and his grandchildren...the unconditional love he had for them and the love of Christ that he emulated towards them as he prayed for these next generations to continue to follow the Lord.
He loved the Lord and was immersed in his service to Him. A simple man who responded to God's love by putting his faith in Jesus Christ and receiving the assurance that all his sins were forgiven...this compelled him to live relentlessly for God. His aim always the gospel...through his words and life...publicly and privately his life was always the same.
He had an ability to listen to others and always wanted to hear their hearts and concerns and what God was doing in their life...a desire that was more than him being heard. His presence was a treasure to all who knew him; his humor, prayers, wisdom, leadership, insights, encouragement and love. As a spirit-filled husband he taught me how to love and I know he is home and in great adoration of God...sitting at his banquet table...being busy with the things God was preparing for him while here....but now his service to God is through all eternity.
Paul's words to the Ephesians touched his life and transformed him many years ago and this love transformed mine...... "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself"
As I think of this definition of love I think of the Lord's love for me this day as Randy is now home with the Lord but how God wants me to keep my eyes on Him and continue to have my heart lavished in a love that is indescribable and goes beyond even a human love and beyond my understanding. A love God has for us that we cannot fathom as he is revealing Himself to us each day and unveiling Himself to us...a love for us that has no limitations. The love of our Father stooping down so low to reach us and touch us. I think of the love song written in the Old Testament, in Song of Solomon. I think of king Solomon, the young king of Israel. A book written in the beginning of his reign as king...in his youth...and of the young Shulamite woman.
She was lovely, a young woman who fell in love. She fell in love with this young handsome king while he was disguised, working as a shepherd in one of his vineyards. They fell in love and shortly after he had to go away and the young Shulamite woman cries out for him in her loneliness.
Then it is announced that the king in all his glory is coming to visit the land. The woman hears this but her heart still longs for the one she loves. She hears the king wants to now see her and she goes, but, she then sees that the king is the shepherd, the one she truly loves. They are married. We read how the bridegroom is always referring to her as "my love" and the bride calls him "my beloved". We see love.
The bride says, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love" Song of Solomon 2:4
The bridegroom in this passage says, "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm...many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it." Song of Solomon 8:6-7
The deepest of love beyond even a physical love is the relationship between us and God and this is what God is showing me. A love we can have whether married or not. A love between Christ and His bride, the church. A love that speaks out of the rapture or taking up of a heart completely because that heart has fallen in love with Christ.
Even in human love..we are failed...our hearts can still feel so empty over time because our hearts need to first be fulfilled with the love of Christ in order to love another as God intended. Jesus came for us all and when are governed by Him we enter into a completion and fullness of heart that is impossible to find any where else.
The beautiful description of love in Song of Solomon is what God intends between Him and us...between Him and me and that begins today. The truest of love is found in Christ and my husband would want that message to continue through my life and words. He would want me to continue to lift up the name of Christ...the truest of love.
As we have entered spring, my husband, and the Lord because in the springtime of life...it is too the day when the Lord Jesus Christ will return as the young king returned for his bride...so is true as this King of Kings and Lord and Lords will return for his bride who is also waiting, whose heart is promised to Him, and who is waiting for Him.
I thank my Lord and Savior for His love for me, for my husband who taught me the greatest lessons on what love truly looks like that I can continue to follow his example with the strength love and courage given to me in Christ.
Happy Birthday to my beloved...."I am His and He is mine" Song of Solomon 6:3
Always and forever,
Michelle
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