Redeeming Romance – Part Three

Check out Parts One and Two!

What immediately comes to mind when you think about God? Who is He to you?

There’s another thing that I realized when I read Redeeming Love the second time. For the longest time, my answer to the above question would have simply been “Father or Daddy.” Not that that’s a bad or incorrect answer in any way; He IS our Father. But what I realized was that my insistence on viewing God as my Father–which I thought helped me hold onto how personal God is and wants to be with us–actually limited me from seeing what else He is.

God is infinitely far beyond our comprehension and understanding, but He allows to assign human descriptors to Him as a way to try to explain Him. It’s like how we call Him a him, when in reality, He’s God and doesn’t have a gender. Or like in Exodus 24, how the elders of Israel described what they saw under “God’s feet,” but God doesn’t have feet. It’s a weird paradox that again, we can’t wrap our heads around. So naturally, by calling God “Father,” I placed on Him associations with my earthly father.

I’ve never done daddy-daughter dates with my dad or anything like that, so when I began to learn about how God romances us, the idea of my Father romancing me was weird, awkward, and uncomfortable, to say the least. I had to learn how to see God for everything He is, which ties into understanding–I say that word very lightly, since our human minds can understand very little about God–the Trinity. God is my Father, my Daddy. And Jesus, the Son, is my Beloved, my Bridegroom.

The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV)

IF I could possibly choose, I would have to say that this is one of my absolute favorite verses of Scripture. It’s so beyond beautiful that it gives me chills. And what a better description of God’s romantic side?

I mean, c’mon, ladies, can we be real for a second? We would all totally swoon if our husband/boyfriend (or future, if you’re single like me) wrote and performed a love song about us and for us, especially if he’s a good singer–although that’s certainly not to say that it isn’t still totally adorable even if he’s not.

Well, guess what. God is singing over you, and you better believe that He’s got an amazing voice. I don’t know who’s currently getting the credit for inventing love songs, but God clearly wrote the first.

I don’t know about you, but the idea of God singing over me boggles and amazes me to the point of worship. Being raised in church, I’ve been hearing worship songs my whole life. The first ‘rejoice’ in the verse is also translated ‘exult,’ and I remember growing up singing the hymn, “We Exult Thee.” I always pictured God sitting on His throne, soaking in our singing; the thought never occurred to me, nor was I ever taught, that God sings over us, exults us, rejoices over us, is overjoyed by us; that He invented praise and worship–over us.

Let that sink in for a moment.

The Voice translation takes this verse even further.

The Eternal your God is standing right here among you, and He is the champion who will rescue you. He will joyfully celebrate over you; He will rest in His love for you; He will joyfully sing because of you like a new husband.

What comes to mind when you think about how a new husband treats (or perhaps should, considering our jacked-up society) and thinks about his wife?

What comes to my mind is the Song of Solomon, as well as the way Michael Hosea treated Angel. Honor. Tenderness. Complete adoration. Except that with God, it’s really even better because unlike a new husband, God already knows every single thing about us, everything that makes us tick (like discussed in Part Two); He already knows exactly how we want to be treated.

In May, I had the privilege of spending a week down at our headquarters to help out, receive additional training (so that less training will be required once I reach full funding), and spend time with some of my Overland family. It just so happened that the very same week, one of Overland’s dear friends was holding a Holy Ghost revival at his church in Tampa. So a few of us drove over there one night. At the end of the night, the pastor went around and laid hands on every person there, and most were getting hit by the Spirit–falling out, receiving the joy of the Spirit, ect. I was in the last 1/3 to get prayed for, and I was nervous because I’d never fallen out before. In the past, I’ve had my head pushed on by ministers trying to get me to fall out. I’d seen people fall out somewhat violently (for lack of a better word) or others pushed by their stomachs. But when Dr. Rodney got to me, he lightly put his hand on my forearm and I softly fell backwards. It’s not something that I can truly explain, other than to say that the Holy Spirit knew I wanted to be treated softly and tenderly, so that’s what He did.

The “speak comfort” is also translated as “speak tenderly,” and the Hebrew literally means “speak to the heart,” which is an idiom for wooing, speaking kindly, and coaxing. He knows our hearts, He knows the desires of our hearts, and He knows how to woo us, how to speak to our hearts. It’s also significant that He makes the distinction between husband and master. Master is defined as an owner or a person with the ability or power to use, control, or dispose of something, but husband insinuates love and sweetness.

Arise, my dearest, my beauty, and come away with me. Don’t you see? The winter is done. The rains and clouds have come and gone.The flowers are unfolding in the fields; the birds are warming up their songs, The cooing of the turtledove is heard throughout the land. The fig trees are bringing forth their first fruit, and the vines are in blossom, filling the air with their fragrance. So arise my dearest, my beauty, and come away with me. (Song of Solomon 2:10-13 VOICE)

There’s no shortage of opinions on how to interpret the Song of Solomon; some think it’s a literal male/female courting and marriage; others think it’s just symbolism; other still think it’s a love letter from God to us. I think it’s all of the above. I do think it provides an example of the ideal human marriage, but I also believe it’s our Beloved speaking to our hearts.

I especially adore this passage from Song of Solomon. First, there’s just something utterly romantic about it. It’s no coincidence that so many romance movies feature similar scenes, with the man spontaneously whisking his lover away. I mean, wives, wouldn’t you totally fall head over heels if your husband secretly planned a surprise vacation–you know, got a babysitter for the kids, booked all the accommodations, planned everything, packed a suitcase for you–and said, “Come away with me”?

Second, we can look at this passage symbolically, with the winter and rains symbolizing the past, and the spring, birds, and trees representing the freedom, peace, and beauty that our Beloved is offering us. He holds out His nail-pierced hands and says, “Come away with Me. Leave your past hurts and hardship behind you and enter into My beautiful love. Let Me be your Hosea. Let Me sing over you. Let Me speak to your heart. Let Me show you how tenderly I love you. Let Me pursue you and romance you with My redeeming romance.”

My Beloved is mine, and I am His. (Song of Solomon 2:16)