ONE LOOK AND ONE JEWEL

ONE LOOK AND ONE JEWEL

“Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck” the bridegroom tells the bride in verse 9 of Chapter 4 in the Song of Songs. The bride had fled the presence of the divine Shepherd, enticed by the glamour of this world. The divine Shepherd throughout this book entreats His chosen bride to return to Him, and yearns after fellowship with her. The bride who hangs her head down in shame, with a guilty conscience, now lifts up her head to look at the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom who has been longing to see her face says that she has ravished His heart “with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck”. Oh, how much your Bridegroom loves you! As you prayerfully look at Him through your spiritual eyes on repentance, His heart is moved. Just with your one look, He has forgotten everything of your past blemished life. One spiritual look at Him is enough. He is further lured by one chain of your neck or one jewel around your neck and not necessarily by many chains around your neck. Dear bride, you possess one particular outstanding quality. This may be your love for the Body of Christ or your concern for the poor or your zeal for the gospel of Christ or your devotion to the secular job or profession or business with godly fear. Though you may have many good qualities, one particular outstanding quality of yours is indeed gravitating the Bridegroom to you. The children of God around you, your spouse or your children may not appreciate this single quality of yours. But to your divine Shepherd, this single quality of yours outweighs the other good qualities in you. This is the secret of His love as enshrined in the Book of Song of Songs. One jewel of your necklace or one chain around your neck is enough for Him to get attracted to you. Every child of God has one outstanding quality of his or her personality. Nobody other than your Bridegroom knows it. You may not know it by looking at your life. To your eyes, all the chains or the jewels may look alike.

The divine shepherd says twice, “You have ravished my heart.” This shows that he is overwhelmed in joy. He addresses the bride “my sister, my spouse.” The relationship as portrayed in this book is a spiritual and emotional relationship between Christ and His disciple. This can be likened to the relationship between a brother and his sister and between a husband and his wife. He loves you with the brotherly love and also with the husbandly love. This is a peculiar love, a blend of both brotherly love and husbandly love.

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