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’s 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.
When Jesus cried out on the Cross it is finished, (John 19:30) it meant much more than His death. For us 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’ve learned something along my journey that has changed my entire perspective concerning my relationship with Jesus. The Garden of Eden is just as close as my next heartbeat. By accepting His sacrifice for my sins and receiving the Holy Spirit He has opened up a garden in my heart where He wants to spend time with me. Just stop and meditate on that fact. Jesus is waiting for you in your own garden—His garden—where He’s placed a bench for two. And the incredible thing is that anytime we want to go there… He is there waiting for us. And once again we are invited to eat of the “tree of life.”
Our garden is truly the doorway to His Rest. On that Friday afternoon 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 into 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, where we need to allow Him to shine His light and His love on those parts of our garden that need tending, so they will no longer hinder our relationship.
What an awesome bridegroom we have. He’s not only made us a promise that He’s coming back for us—a glorious bride without spot or wrinkle, holy without blemish (Eph5:27)—Jesus has taken it upon Himself to provide us all that we need in His Holy Spirit to ensure that we become that bride. And that includes not only all the blessings we will receive in the process now, but also all the future rewards He is storing up for us. Our life here on earth can be filled with all the blessings of heaven; they’re all waiting for us in our garden. All we have to do is spend the time with Him and be obedient to His word. He’s there this very moment, waiting for us.