Love Nourished to Flourish
A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed. (Song of Solomon 4:12)
Gen. 2:24; Isa. 61:10 and 62:5; Mt. 25:1-11; Jn. 3:29; Jas. 4:8; Rev. 3:20 and 21:9
What Is God Saying?
The Song of Solomon is a wedding song that honors marriage. Its pictures of marital joy are beautiful. It affirms sex as a gift of God and an important part of His plan. We must walk quietly through this garden and handle its sublime truths gently. It is private and precious. It is secret and sacred. That is why a marriage is a locked garden and a sealed fountain. Sex in marriage redeems and lifts the desires of the flesh from casual pleasure and instant gratification which open the door to heartache and pain.
How Does This Apply To Us?
This love relationship reflects our communion with Jesus, the Lover of our souls. It is very much like a marriage—the church is called the Bride of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9). As individual Christians, we should regard our relationship with Jesus as a joy to be widely shared and a privilege to be personally cultivated and renewed. There are times when our love for the Lord is a locked garden and a sealed fountain—intimate, private.
Pray With Me
O the sweetness of my moments with You, loveliest Friend! Heavenly manna cannot be hoarded, yet only as I am alone with You, in a place apart, only then do I get my bearings, only then do I see clearly beyond trivial things, only then do I find life nourished at its vital center.
Be to me a garden locked. Defend me there from all vagrant thoughts and unworthy motives. Guard me during these moments of quiet beauty from low desires and selfish aims. Let my senses be alive to Your presence, even though the signs of Your presence may come to me as delicately as the fragrance of a rose and seem as fragile as the song of a bird.
Be to me a fountain sealed against the debris of sinful, careless thought. In Your time, Lord, send me out that I may be to others an unlocked garden to spread the fragrance of Your love and an unsealed fountain to tell the news of Your grace.
All this I pray to the praise and glory of Your name, O blessed Christ. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
As the hymn ‘In the Garden’ says, ‘I come to the garden alone,’ let us spend time alone with Jesus then go out to ‘spread the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere’ (II Cor.2:14). If we do not have a locked garden or a fountain sealed for our use only, we will not be effective when we share the Good News with others. The fragrance comes to us when we are alone with Jesus. It comes from us when we move among others.
