Come!

The Song is a wonderful love story. The man is a shepherd, totally at home on the hills and mountains round Jerusalem. He’s forever running and leaping over the rough terrain, even at night (Song 2:17). He’s the very picture of freedom and vitality. The young woman is quite different. She’s been controlled and dominated by her half-brothers (Song 1:6). She feels ashamed of herself and insecure, reluctant to be completely open to her lover. He finds her inaccessible, like a lily surrounded by thornbushes (Song 2:2), or a dove hiding cleft in the rocks (Song 2:14). But, as their relationship grows and deepens, all that changes.

Earlier, he had come to her, and said, ‘Come with me’ (Song 2:10). But she was too scared to go with him over the ‘rugged mountains’ (Song 2:17) – ‘You go, I’m staying’. But he never gave up on her. And here, at the end of their story (or, at least, of this part of it) it’s she who’s saying to him, ‘Come with me’. And the mountains are no longer ‘rugged’ but ‘spice-laden’.

I think that every Christian has, at some point, heard Jesus say, ‘Come’, and has replied, ‘Not now’. Perhaps we’ve been scared or, maybe, it was just inconvenient. We may live to regret it. But He won’t give up on us. Just like the shepherd in The Song, He’ll come back again and again, telling us how much He loves us, inviting us to walk with Him, reminding us that, however ‘rugged’ the way ahead looks, when we walk with Him, it becomes ‘spice-laden’, filled with the fragrance of His presence (see 2 Corinthians 2:14).

Sometimes, when Sue and I’ve been walking in mountains, we’ve been amazed at the agility of the wild animals that have made them their home. What a picture of security and freedom as they leap from rock to rock! Here, in The Song, the woman is asking the shepherd to come with her, so that she can share his security and freedom, which is just like that of ‘a gazelle or young stag’.

Whatever the ‘mountains’ you’ll be facing today, Jesus’ presence will transform your experience of them. They’ll still be mountainous, but you will share in His security and freedom. They’ll still be ‘rugged’ but they’ll be filled with the aroma of His presence as He comes with you. He’s forever saying ‘Come!’ to us; how He loves it when we say ‘Come!’ to Him.