One of the most beautiful parts of Solomon’s Song is the bride’s realization that it’s not about who she is, what she has done or what she’s been through. It’s all about her relationship with Solomon. She wants him to draw her near and he is continually calling her to grow close. The problem she has is that wanting something and pursuing it are two different things.
We can learn a great deal about this struggle as we watch the bride discover how to put action to her desires. She learns that the secret to her relationship with Solomon is to spend time with Him in his garden. That’s the answer for us if we truly want to draw close to Jesus and develop the kind of relationship that Solomon’s bride realized.
To fully understand this concept, we need to go back to the beginning. In The Garden everything was perfection and Adam and Eve walked in perfect harmony with God. But sin destroyed that relationship and they were banned from The Garden. God could not allow them to eat of the tree of life and live forever in their fallen condition. They didn’t want to leave His presence so He had to drive them out and place an angel with a flaming sword at the gate to keep them from coming back, and that angel stood at His post until the “defining moment” in history in the empty tomb.
When Jesus cried out on the Cross “it is finished,” it meant much more than His death. For our purpose here, realize that there was no longer the need for the angel to guard the entrance to The Garden, the gate was thrown wide open and man was given a way back to God.
I learned something along my journey that changed my entire perspective concerning my relationship with Jesus. Jesus is waiting for you in your own garden—His garden—where He has placed a bench for two. And the incredible thing is that anytime we want to go there He is there waiting for us. Once again, we are invited to freely eat of the “tree of life.”
Solomon’s bride discovered that in her garden there were incredibly fragrant spices, sweet fruit and a well of fresh clear water. The same awaits us. The fragrance of the graces He’s bestowed upon us and the sweet fruit of the Spirit abound, fed by a spring of living water from the well He dug. Jesus continually draws us to come into our garden and sit and learn from Him. He is always there, tasting our fruit, noticing which tender shoots need attention, seeing what new seeds need to be sown, identifying the weeds that need to be pulled, what little foxes need to be chased out before they can ruin our fruit and what parts need watering. And even though our garden is sealed from the outside, just like the bride’s garden, there is a well of living water that needs to flow out of it and the wind of The Spirit needs to lift the fragrant graces He has given us into the world around us.
On that Friday when God rent the veil in the temple, the doorway to His presence was opened to all who will, by faith, receive His salvation from their sins and accept His invitation to enter His very presence. Do you realize that Israel waited for centuries for that moment and they missed it? We can’t afford to let this opportunity pass us by. As His bride our first desire should be to spend every moment with Him, one-on-one with the Creator of the universe, sitting beside the One with the answer to our every question. This is the only place where we’ll find the path to spiritual maturity. We need to allow Him to shine His light and His love on those parts of our garden that need tending and remain steadfast, allowing His Spirit do the work in our heart that will clear away another hurdle on our way to spiritual maturity. But that won’t happen unless we spend time with Him in our garden … He is there this very moment, waiting for you.