Staying in Love

I give thanks every day for you! I was touched with your open arms when I came as a new pastor. You touched me with your love. You inspire me how you are growing in your faith. You share the love of Jesus Christ openly and with grace. I see you following Jesus Christ. I hear your testimony how God’s love is changing you. I see God’s blessings flowing from your wonderful testimony of God’s love.

People think the Bible is dull, dry, and boring. If that is the case, they haven’t read the Songs of Solomon. The Songs of Solomon teaches us about love. It teaches us about love between a husband and a wife. The Songs of Solomon teaches us how to write a love letter. Today’s love letter is to King Solomon from his wife. Do we write love letters to our girlfriends, boyfriends, or spouses anymore? Do we tell the people that we love them in a special and creative way? Do we just resort to finding a greeting card that almost says what we want to say to those that we love?

I confess that I don’t write Susan love letters anymore. I don’t know if I even did it when we were dating. I just assume that she knows how I feel about her. I also confess that I buy the American Greetings card to express my love for her. I haven’t found a special and creative way to tell her that I love her. I’m promising myself that I will say “I love you” to Susan in a special way right after I write this sermon.

The Song of Solomon 2:8-13 scriptures says “Listen! My lover! Look! Here he comes leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. My lover spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”

This letter is written about King Solomon by his wife when they were very old. She was graciously remembering when Solomon was a young man. She called him a young stag. Today, she would probably call him a young buck or strong lion. She remembered that he could overcome any obstacle to reach her. Solomon was like an Old Testament superman. He could leap across mountains and bound over hills to reach her. Solomon could probably have stopped a speeding bullet if bullets had been invented when this book of the Bible was written. The simple request for Solomon’s wife to arise and come with him is powerful. Do we tell the ones that we love that we want them to come with us?

Solomon tells her that all of their problems are gone like the dreary rains. He explains that all of their problems of their lives have been replaced with flowers. If winter does not come, we cannot enjoy the spring. If the cold soaking rains do not come, the ground cannot open up to allow the flower seeds to sprout and bloom. Have we appreciated the challenges in our lives? Did we realize that we are stronger because we’ve endured those challenges? Solomon’s wife is celebrating the memory of when their love was young and all they thought about doing was to sing. I’d love to be able to serenade Susan, but my voice isn’t sweet enough to serenade her by myself. I’d need music playing behind me that I could sing along. There’s a song called “Sing” that Karen Carpenter sang when I was a kid. The words went:

“Sing, sing a song. Sing out loud. Sing out strong. Sing of good things not bad. Sing of happy not sad. Sing, sing a song. Make it simple to last your whole life long. Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear. Just sing, sing a song. Let the world sing along. Sing of love there could be. Sing for you and for me.”

Karen Carpenter’s song always gave me encouragement. The song said “don’t worry about it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear. Just sing, sing a song.” I love to sing praises to God. I enjoy singing the songs that pop into my head without worrying about my voice being good enough. I just sing songs. We need to be willing to write love letters as well.

Did you realize that most of our hymns are actually love songs? Our hymns teach us about God’s love for us and also teach us about our love for God. Everything in this life boils down to love. We learn how to love our family from the way God loves his only son, Jesus Christ. We learn about how to love our parents from the love that Jesus gave to his father in heaven.

We are able to love because we were loved first by God. We learn to love our brothers and sisters. We learn to love strangers. We will learn to love in a new way when we meet that special someone who becomes our partner for our journey through this world.

Love has a way to overlook any flaw in our voices or our personality. It is when we forget “that we are in love” that the flaws in our special someone becomes visible. Somehow, we forget to see our husband or wife through the eyes of love.

Do you ever take the hand of your loved one to walk through the woods and listen to the birds singing and the crickets chirping? Do you wait for the sunset to look at God’s beauty together? Do you wait for the lightning bugs to glow in the early evening light? Or do you sit there worrying about the mosquitoes instead? Do you look into the eyes of your special someone and remember the first time you gazed into those eyes? Or do you look at the wrinkles around the eyes or the graying hair at the temples?

The flowers have a wonderful fragrance if we stop long enough to smell them with our loved ones. The first fruits are so sweet and tasty if we stop long enough to take a bite. Are you willing take the time to pick the fruit and taste the sweet and juicy peach?

King Solomon’s wife had a gift. She remembered King Solomon through the eyes of love. He had flaws. He had a lot of flaws. Did she mention those in her love letter? No. Did she complain about leaving his socks on the bedroom floor? No. Did she complain about anything? No. Her letter celebrated his strength, kindness, and love for her without any of the memories about a fight about money or disciplining the kids. She remembered his loving words to her. She remembered that King Solomon wanted her with him. Here are the verses: “Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”

He is telling her that he thinks that she is a flower that blooms in the spring after the early rains. He thinks that she bears good fruit and that she is the beautiful one. He wants her by his side.

I think we forget to tell the ones that we love that they bear good fruit. We tell them that our kids are dumb and lazy. That is a lie! We complain about the small stuff in life that doesn’t matter. Our kids are blessings from God. God has given us people in our lives to love and cherish. It is our duty to tell those people that we are thankful that God has blessed us with their presence in our lives.

Those people may be in our lives for a brief season. We can still write love letters about how they touched our lives and our hearts. We can also write love letters to our parents to tell them that we are thankful that they loved us before we knew about God’s love. We can write to the people in our lives today to tell them that they are special.

I give thanks every day for you! I was touched with your open arms when I came to you. You touched me with your love. You inspire me how you are growing in your faith. You share the love of Jesus Christ openly and with grace. The Hall Family recently experienced the tragedy of losing their home, but they did not lose love. You loved them as if they were your own family. I’ve seen you forgive and turn your pain over to God. I’ve seen you ask God for prayers. I’ve seen how you’ve reacted when you’ve been touched by God. I am in awe that you dream of God’s love and are willing to share that love with others.

I give thanks that you encourage, strengthen, and love all of God’s children. I give thanks that you raise your voices to God. I give thanks that you lift up those that are discouraged. I give thanks that I can see God in your face. I give thanks that you love with your whole heart. I give thanks that you love to get dirty to build an addition to our church. I give thanks that I have learned to love, to share, to encourage, and to sing praises to God right here with you.

I love you. I cherish your smile. I remember your faithfulness. I thank God that I have the opportunity to call you my friend. I thank God that I am learning about God’s grace through your example and your love. I remember to love God with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength, and all of my mind and to love my neighbor as myself.

I will also remember that Susan is the love of my life and that she was a gift from God to me to be my companion as I journey through this world to serve God in a special and powerful way. I will remember that our children our God’s first fruit. Our family is a gift that I will cherish today and everyday from this day forward. I promise to write praises to God for all of those that I love.

I vow to write love letters again. I vow to sing a love song and let the whole world sing along. Last week, one of the young girls asked to sing “Jesus Loves Me.” It was the faith of a little child that reminded us that Jesus loves us.

I promise that I will be the one asking to sing love songs about God in the future. I promise to remember to cherish love of all kinds and especially the love of my wife, the mother of our children, and the woman who enables me to be the man who can serve God. Without my wife, I would not be the man in front of you today. Susan taught me to give to God first. Susan taught me to find joy in every situation. Susan was the answer to my prayer to God when I told him that I was ready for my companion in this journey we call life. I thank God that I am a man blessed with Susan and my kids, our God, and our church. I thank God for men and women who are unified in their faith and abundant love. Amen!