Enough by Sharon Jaynes

Author:Sharon Jaynes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736973564
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

In the book of the Bible called Song of Songs, we meet a king who is riding though his kingdom and spies a young Shulammite maiden working in the fields. He is captivated by her beauty and smitten by her form. Her hands are stained with grape juice from the vineyard, her skin is tanned from the midday sun, and her clothes are soiled from the dirt of the field, but the king sees beyond all that. While he is enthralled with her beauty, she begs him not to stare at her. She does not feel worthy of such attention. In our day, she would have probably said, “I’m so ugly.”

No matter what she thought of herself, the king was mesmerized. Solomon adored her rosy cheeks, her long neck, her flowing hair, and her ruby lips. He adored the fact that she had all her teeth, shapely legs, and small breasts. He even thought her poochy tummy was adorable. He swooned, “You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you” (4:7).

But what did she think of herself? Not very much. “Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect” (1:6).

She felt inferior to other women because of her weathered skin. It wasn’t desirable in those days to be tanned by the sun. Lighter skin was considered exotic. Women went to great lengths to shade their skin from the scorching sun. But because she was forced to take care of her mother’s sons’ vineyards, she had to neglect taking care of herself. Amazingly, in the end, she began to see herself as her bridegroom saw her. Oh, that we would do the same.

Is the Song of Songs our song? For centuries, commentators have noted a parallel between the Lover and the Beloved to Jesus and His bride—the church. Jesus, the lover of your soul, looks at you and thinks you are beautiful—absolutely stunning.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.