You Are So Loved




“Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised.

Song of Solomon 8:7

Have you ever listened to someone talk about the Bible and it left you thinking they might as well be giving a lecture on organic chemistry? I know nothing about organic chemistry but am told it is voted year in and year out the most difficult college level course a person can take. The point is some pastors and lecturers actually try to use words that are so uncommon to the English language so as to impress the audience that their listeners walk away more impressed with the presenter than they are with God himself. Sadly, when this happens pretty much everyone has most likely missed the primary reason God gave us His word to begin with. It was Max Lucado who in writing about reading and studying the Bible said, “A love letter wasn’t meant to be analyzed but enjoyed.” God forbid that in our pursuit of Him that we forget the Bible is God’s love letter to humanity, to us!

The Old Testament book, “The Song of Solomon” or as some call it, “The Song of Songs”, is a beautiful collection of poems written then compiled to teach us about love. For the Jews the book is seen as an allegory. The woman represents the nation of Israel, the man in the story is God and the love between them is the covenant that God made with the Jewish people. Many Christians read the book and see the woman as the bride of Christ because of what the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5 using marriage to demonstrate the quality of love between Jesus and His bride, the Church. There are still others who read the story and picture Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden prior to the fall when love was untainted by sin.

In all three viewpoints love is the central theme and the reader quickly learns that love is captivating and the poems throughout the book express beautifully the insatiable hunger we have to know and be fully known and desired by another. As you read your Bible I pray and hope your eyes are opened to understand the height and the width and the depth of God’s love for you. Today my hope is that you know in ways like never before that you are so loved, so valuable to God and is Jesus gave His life to save and redeem yours! God’s love for you is the love story of all love stories. Enjoy His love letter to you every time you open your bible and may you never grow tired of hearing just how loved you are!

I LOVE YOU!

Michael Osthimer

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