Surprise: It’s Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day Regular Joes;

I hope it isn’t a surprise to you that it’s Valentine’s Day.  If so I recommend checking out the second-hand store for a suit of armor or a flack jacket and helmet.

Are you planning something special for your valentine? You might want to read this first.

This morning I want to share some thoughts from the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament.  I know we are tough manly men but that doesn’t mean we can’t be tender and loving and reach out to that special person in our life in a way that really speaks to her.  I mean… you must have had a little romance going at some time in the past to attract her to marry you in the first place, right?  I hope you didn’t just grab a big club, knock her over the head and drag her to the altar!

The Song of Solomon is  poetry often written as a conversation between a lover and his beloved. First a reading from chapter 1:9-11

Lover

9 I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh.   10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.  11 We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.

My first Valentine’s Day tip for you guys: Make sure that you don’t take things out of context or a romantic saying from 2500 years ago and use it on your “beloved’ today.  I tried this line on my wife last night and let me tell you; she was not impressed so it probably won’t work for you either.

Chapter 1:15-17

Lover

15 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.

Beloved

16 How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.

Lover

17 The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.

Spare no expense on the one you love!

It is not easy to keep this kind of passion going over the years of marriage but to the degree that we as men can hold up our part, and then the beams of our house will be as cedars and our rafter’s firs.   What he is saying here is that you will have a strong household….and marriage.

Song of Solomon 4:1-7

Lover

1 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead.  2 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone.  3 Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.  4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.  5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies.  6 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense.  7 All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you.

I think, if we guys could talk to our wives like this it would be easier for them to see us in a better light.

Song of Solomon 5:10-16

Beloved

10 My lover is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.  11 His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.  12 His eyes are like doves by the water streams, washed in milk, mounted like jewels.  13 His cheeks are like beds of spice yielding perfume. His lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh.  14 His arms are rods of gold set with chrysolite. His body is like polished ivory decorated with sapphires.  15 His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.  16 His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. This is my lover, this my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Wouldn’t we like our wives to have this image of us?  Love and marriage is a two-way street.  When we are first in love we are willing to ignore all kinds of ‘defects’ in the other person.  As time goes on we seem to get more and more critical of each other.  Today…. tonight….let’s try to go back in time and spend some time with that ‘First Love’ that we married.

Regular Joe (the romantic)

Are you feeling cornered?

Related articles

• Song of Solomon and True Love (codybateman.org)