I sleep, but my heart keeps watch;
The voice of my beloved – a knocking at the door!
“Open to me, my sister, my companion, my dove, my perfect one;
For my head is wet with dew,
And my locks of hair with the drops of the night.”
I hesitate. I have just made myself comfortable in bed.
My beloved puts his hand by the opening of the door, and my heart is stirred by him. I arise to open to my beloved, but he has passed by.
My soul follows after him because of his word,
And I seek him, but do not find him;
I call him, but he does not answer me.
I implore others, “If you find my beloved, tell him I am wounded with love.”
They respond, “What is your beloved more than any other beloved, that you would implore us so?”
My beloved is a shining and fiery light,
burning into eternity.
His head is like refined gold,
His eyes pierce skin, bone, and marrow,
and enter into the deepest parts of my being.
His cheeks are like bowls of spices that pour forth perfumes,
His lips are lilies dripping choice myrrh.
His hands are like elaborate gold, set with precious stones.
His stomach is like an ivory tablet, inlaid with sapphire.
His legs are like pillars of marble, established on golden feet.
His appearance is like the red wood forest, a strong shelter in which I can hide,
His mouth is most sweet and altogether desirable.
This is my beloved, my companion, my bridegroom whom I desire.
*The above icon is referred to as Christ the Bridegroom. I recently read through the Song of Songs with this icon before and was quite deeply moved by it.
Yeah!! This was the particular passage I was trying to remember earlier…but it’s quite awesome when you think of it as referring to Christ. Although, I must admit….the Lord looks a bit sad in this particular icon…I hope that a bridegroom would look a bit…more enthusiastic, lol.
I’m glad that you brought up that he looks sad. It is of course the icon revealing Christ during his trial and before being hanged upon a cross. Like I mentioned above, it is titled Christ the Bridegroom. It is with this icon before me that I read through the Song of Songs.
It revealed to me the “reverse perspective” that Christ so frequently manifests. In weakness there is strength, in humility there is exaltation, the meek and the poor inherit the earth, etc.
It is that perspective that deeply moved me. To think of Christ hanging upon the cross, rescuing his bride, and all of the above language still applying to him in that moment and this present moment.