Beloved.

Love of my life
Look deep in my eyes
There you will find what you need
Give me your life
The lust and the lies
The past you’re afraid I might see
You’ve been running away from meYou’re my beloved
Lover I’m yours
Death shall not part us
It’s you I died for
For better or worse
Forever we’ll be
Our Love it unites us
It binds you to me
It’s a mystery

Love of my life
Look deep in my eyes
There you will find what you need
I’m the giver of life
I’ll clothe you in white
My immaculate bride you will be
Oh come running home to me

You’re my beloved
Lover I’m yours
Death shall not part us
It’s you I died for
For better or worse
Forever we’ll be
Our Love it unites us
It binds you to me

Well you’ve been a mistress, my wife
Chasing lovers that won’t satisfy
Won’t you let me make you my bride?
You will drink of my lips
And you’ll taste new life

Cause you’re my beloved
Lover I’m yours
Death shall not part us
It’s you I died for
For better or worse
Forever we’ll be
Our Love it unites us
and it binds you to me

You’re my beloved
Forever we’ll be
Our love it unites us
And it binds you to me
It’s a mystery
It’s a mystery

If ever there were a love song from God to my heart, this would be it. My favorite Old Testament prophet is Hosea, there is something in his writings that has always spoken to my heart. In case you don’t know the story, God asks Hosea to marry a harlot named Gomer. It is through his marriage to Gomer and her countless affairs, despite his deep love for her, that Hosea mosts relates to God’s love for His people. The analogies are beautiful and are so true in my own life (again, see Monday’s blog).

There are so many lines in here that I imagine God singing to me and upon hearing them I just want to cry. I haven’t been the faithful lover He so patiently waits for. “Love of my life…” Just the opening line alone tugs at my heart strings. I can’t imagine saying “love of my life” to someone who I didn’t truly believe was the love of my life or who didn’t love me back in the same way. Can you imagine going up to someone on the streets and calling them the love of your life? And yet God calls to each one of us in this way, and He asks us to look deeply into His eyes for He knows that is only in Him that we will find what we need, and what we want.

“You’re my beloved, lover I’m yours.” What a glorious promise! He promises us Himself, always and forever. Death shall not part us, He died for love of us. He died so that we could be united to Him in this life and in the next. “For better or worse…” He knows, much like Hosea knew about Gomer, that I’m going to screw up. I’m going to fail. But He promises me (and invites me to promise Him) that even in the bad times, our love will unite us. Our love will keep us together and will strengthen me.

He is the giver of life. “I’ll clothe you in white, my immaculate bride you will be.” Oh, to be clothed in white. To have our purity of heart, mind, body and soul restored, and He alone has the power to restore it, to clothe us in white and call us His immaculate bride. Not His “good enough” bride, not His “at least she took a shower” bride, but Hisimmaculatebride, a word often associated with His own Mother, the only woman to ever be without sin. Does that mean He wants to marry His Mother? No. It means that the beauty and innocence Jesus knows and loves about His Mother is the same beauty and innocence He longs to restore us to.

The bridge gets me, every time. I can hardly listen to it without wanting to weep, cry, and sob like a baby in His loving arms. “You’ve been a mistress, my wife, chasing lovers that won’t satisfy, won’t you let Me make you My bride?” Oh, crap, He’s found me out. My affair with anything and anyone else – my job, money, my relationships – has been exposed. I never could hide it from Him. He knows I’ve been chasing other lovers and He knows they won’t satisfy me. The amazing, humbling thing about God’s love is that He lets us. He didn’t come down from Heaven and tell me that chasing Mr. Irish as my God would leave me broken hearted. He loved me enough to let me go down that road and discover the painful truth for myself. He could have told me, God knows He has told me before, but I wouldn’t have believed Him. The moment I come to realize that my affair is just that, He is there waiting for me. Asking me, begging me to let Him make me His bride. It is truly mind-blowing if you think about it. Imagine the love of your life comes up to you and admits they have had a torrid affair. Can you imagine proposing to them moments later? And yet this is exactly what God does with us. We will drink of His lips and taste new life, life unending. Life eternal. Life, love and everything we’ve been searching for everywhere else. I’m running home to Him, will you?

What I’m Listening To:
“Beloved” by Tenth Avenue North
“Springsteen” by Eric Church
“I Need To Know” by Kris Allen
“A Way Out” by Tyrone Wells