The fragrant chuppah

Yesterday on my way home from work (while I was stuck in traffic that was bottlenecked due to construction), I snapped a photo of a couple of trees that I thought were forming a familiar shape. As Owen Wilson told Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents, "It's an altar. Or you might call it a chuppah?"

I'm not Jewish, but Wikipedia tells me that a chuppah is a canopy that a bride and groom stand under while they are getting married; the chuppah is a symbol of the new home that the husband and wife will build together.

I thought the photo that I snapped while I was in traffic yesterday caught an adorable nature scene. Aww. Or, since there is a football and/or soccer practice field in the background (under the tree-chuppah), perhaps you could say that the photo could symbolize Texans' crazy autumn addiction to sports. I now pronounce thee football fans and wife. Heh, heh.

But I didn't sit down next to my purr-drooling cat today to write about sports.

"Of the wood of Lebanon Solomon the King made himself a palanquin: He made its pillars of silver, its support of gold, its seat of purple, its interior paved with love by the daughters of Jerusalem. Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day of the gladness of his heart." (Song of Solomon 3:9-13)

Recently when I began rereading through Song of Solomon, I was a little bit weirded out. I've read the Book before, and it was awesome, and it ministered to me (especially chapter 6, verse 4). But this time, I was a little bit disappointed, and I thought Song of Solomon was like a weird opera.

Perhaps Mike Bickle had a similar experience many years ago. I heard him explain once in a sermon that God told him to familiarize himself with Song of Solomon because he would basically be teaching God's heart for His people through that Book. So, Mike Bickle read the Book and was a little bit weirded out. He described himself as "a man's man," and now God suddenly wanted him to explain this flowery, girly Book to people? I think it really stretched him at first. But Song of Solomon is one of his specialties now.

As for me, when I recently tried to understand Song of Solomon, and I was having a "what the heck" moment with God, He simply told to me, "Love is messy." Indeed it is. And perhaps that explains the entire Book in a nutshell.

I mean, in Song of Solomon, you have this young girl gushing all over her beloved, and she has an entourage of chickfriends following her around and getting an earful of how she feels about her beloved. And you have the girl getting all fickle and being like, "Eh, don't bother me, beloved, I need my beauty sleep," and she starts looking for him, and the city watchmen beat her up while she's looking for him. And throughout the entire Book, the girl and her beloved totally gush all over each other like two very hormonal teenagers who seem way too young and immature to get married. In most places, the Book reads a lot like a loveletter that a teenage boy would sneak away into his parents' attic to write to his girlfriend.

(And yes, Song of Solomon is also about sex, which is why some churches are too uncomfortable to preach sermons about the Book. But really, if you can't use the Bible to talk about sex, how are you going to discuss it? Are you going to just let your teenagers do whatever the heck they want behind your back? And then wonder why you suddenly have so many unwed pregnancies in your family?)

During my recent "what the heck" moment with God regarding Song of Solomon, Jesus told me, "I spilled My guts out for you." Indeed He did. You don't give up Your body to die on a cross just because You kinda like somebody a little bit. You do it because You truly love them, and the only way to have them all to Yourself is to sacrifice Yourself for them.

Of course, the entire Book symbolizes Jesus' heart for His bride (us, the Church, the bride of Christ). It's basically a love song that Jesus and His Church need to constantly sing to each other: "I am my Beloved's, and His desire is toward me. / You are beautiful, My darling, My love." And the world is supposed to see it and get all swoony over Jesus, too. Ideally, that's what needs to happen.

"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ." (2 Corinthians 2:14-17)

Sometimes when I scoop my cats into my arms, I press my nose into their adorable little fur and take a nice, big breath. Sometimes they smell awesome, and I'm like, "Wow. Did you put on some kitty cologne?" One time, I had Macho in my arms, and I breathed in his furry aroma, and I was like, "Wow. You smell really nice... Oh. You walked into the air-freshener spray, didn't you?" Heh, heh.

Yes, my cats smell like my "fragrance" because they live in my home. They can't avoid what I smell like or what I want my home to smell like.

If I am part of the bride of Christ, then He and I have built a home together. I live in God's house. I am going to smell like Him. God smells like love, so I hope I smell like love, too. And yes, love is quite messy.

Loving people is hard. Sometimes they don't understand you, and they hurt you. Other times they change their minds about liking you, and they decide that they hate you, and they think everyone around them needs to hate you, too. They spread rumors about you that aren't true. They mock you openly in front of people who you thought would stand up for you, but they just keep their mouths shut while the mockers -- the ones for whom you've spilled your guts out -- just keep dissing you.

And yet, Jesus just keeps on loving.

Sometimes after sowing love, you reap it back, and when that happens, it's very rewarding. Sometimes people will surprise you and suddenly bless you with an awesome gift. Sometimes people will bend over backwards to spend time with you. Sometimes people will rush to your defense so fast, it will make your head spin, in a good way. And sometimes your cat will crawl up to your chest and lounge-purr so hard that she'll drool on your sleeve.

If this type of thing makes my heart skip a few beats, I can only imagine how good it makes God feel whenever I express love for Him so hard that I nearly fly through the ceiling, rip through the roof, sail up to heaven, and smooch His face off.

Yep, love is messy indeed. But I don't think my Bridegroom Who stands under the chuppah with me would want it any other way.