“. . . Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away” (Song of Songs 2:13).
Ladies, do you remember when you first fell in love with your husband? How you felt about each other? My husband-to-be wooed me with dozens of red roses and loved to walk me everywhere on our Bible college campus. One day I headed to chapel early, as I was the designated organist for the service. When I walked by his class, he was sitting near an open, low-lying window. I smiled at him and continued on my way. Suddenly he appeared at my side.
I looked at him, mouth agape in surprise. “How in the world did you get out of class so early?”
“Oh,” he said with a mischievous grin, “as soon as the professor wasn’t looking, I just climbed out the window!”
Being in love will make you do crazy things! You can’t spend enough time together. Everything about the other person is fascinating, delightful, and interesting.
Solomon and the Shulamite were in love like that. He tells her, “You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride . . . ” (Song of Songs 4:9). Of course he wants to spend time with his new wife, so he invites her to “come away” with him.
Jesus also invites us to be with him. In Revelations 3:20 he says, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (NLT). Not only is this an invitation to open our hearts to him as our Lord and Savior, but he notes that the intimacy that follows is like close friends enjoying each other’s company over a meal.
We tend to be distracted, stressed, and preoccupied. But if we desire to know his love, joy, and peace, we must cultivate time with him. C. S. Lewis wrote, “If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire . . . If you want joy, . . . peace, eternal life, you must get close to . . . the thing that has them.” Every relationship needs an investment of time, which allows it to grow, and our relationship with Jesus is no different.
I’m inspired to look for more opportunities to slip away with him, aren’t you? He’s our Beloved, our First Love. We can get up earlier or stay up later to pray and to read the Bible, his precious words to us. Even just setting aside five extra minutes a day, when we’re in a season where we don’t have more time than that, is worthwhile. Did you know that if you read the Bible for just five minutes a day, it would only take you about two years to read the entire book?
Jesus whispers, “Come away with me.”
Let us arise and go!