Song of songs
Friday, December 21, 2012
Third Week of Advent
Song of Solomon 2:10-14
Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come! For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come. O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, let me see you, let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.
Today is the last day on the Mayan calendar. The winter solstice arrives at 11:42 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) for those of us in the northern hemisphere.
And it is time for Jesus to be born. The weather outside is frightful, but Jesus’ birth brings spring inside me. See the flowers suddenly shoot out from crevices in my hardened heart. Pruning is painful, but Jesus loves me, and as I’m cut back to the way God made me, just watch me soften, and grow.
St. Francis imagined even the animals of the Bethlehem stable worshipping Jesus. The animals heard his song, and it was sweet. They felt his gentle gaze, and it was lovely. This baby loved them, and they could feel it. They sang back.
Come Jesus, arise my beloved, my beautiful one. The frozen days are gone. Death has no dominion. It has no sting. It brings life everlasting, and joy forever, flying free.
From now, Lord, the days grow longer. The sun shines higher in the sky. There are weather seasons still, and days will lengthen again and then shorten. But you have come, and you will not be gone. We say, “Come, Lord Jesus!” But we know too that you are here.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1118
