Home Sweet Apartment

I'm officially a Sioux Center resident again! Living back home for the past 5 1/2 months was such a blessing and exactly where I needed to be for the time, but I am a big girl and ready to get out on my own again. :)

Call me weird, but I think setting up my apartment is so much fun. Over the summer, I was making little things that I was excited to put in my apartment.

See Exhibit A:

Isn't it cute?? I printed it offline in black 'n' white and then colored it in with my color-choice. It doesn't match my cute little teapot so much, but at least it matches my bright yellow coffee pot! :)

So the main things in my apartment are set up, and now I'm finishing up the final touches. A few years ago I had read an autobiography by Mother Theresa. I loved so many of the things she had to say, that I wrote a bunch of them down in a separate notebook. I've now taken those quotes and put them in my apartment.

One of them is this:

I have this on my bathroom mirror. (Radiating--get it?!) Obviously, I've also included a verse that reminds me that Jesus is indeed completely in love with me, so I have no excuse not to radiate that love and pour it out on others. More of Him and less of me! 

Just a guess, but maybe some of you see that Song of Songs verse and immediately think that it's a book about husband & wife. I don't disagree with you--parts of the book certainly can be applied that way. But there are some kinda weird things in there that I find super hard to apply to just husband and wife love. Like how is it romantic that the husband leaves his wife two different times & she gets beat up because of it? Why would a husband do that? 

 BUT if God is love, then all types of love comes from & originates in Him, right? So all this love that the husband feels about his bride and vice versa can be applied to the relationship between the Bride, the Church, and Jesus, the Bridegroom, yes? I honestly don't know how you can read that book and not read it that way. :) Not trying to offend anyone, but it kinda bugs me when weddings will have "I have found the one whom my soul loves." My soul is spiritual, therefore, a human being can not fill my soul. But Jesus? Most definitely! I have found the one whom my soul loves, but it's never, ever going to be a human being. :) That's just my opinion. And then to explain the whole husband leaving His wife thing--how often do we have "spiritual highs" followed by a "spiritual low." I believe this is Jesus drawing Himself away from us to see if we will come search even deeper for Him or if we'll just back away. He pursues us, for sure, but He also longs to be pursued in return! He knows that's what we need in order to increase our faith and hope and love.

But then maybe some of you are thinking, "Well, then how in the world do you explain the parts where they're complimenting each other's physical features? Does Jesus really care about that stuff??" Well, I know He cares about everything about us, but I personally, don't think of it much that way. Instead, I look at the order that the body parts come in. In chapter 4, He starts with complimenting the bride's eyes, hair, teeth, etc...then ends with breasts. I know that Jesus longs for intimacy with us, and I know that intimacy only comes from vulnerability. Now what's a more vulnerable body part--your eyes or your breasts? Obvious answer, right? When we grow in intimacy with Jesus, we don't start right off with the most vulnerable parts of who we are. No, we slowly open up deeper parts of our hearts and invite Jesus in. It doesn't work any other way. So Jesus loves our eyes and hair--the less intimate parts of who we are, but He also loves our breasts--the very vulnerable parts of who we are that requires a whole lot of trust to open up about. By Jesus complimenting those "body parts", He's telling His Bride, that she can trust Him even more and give Him even deeper parts of who she is.

Likewise, Jesus longs to reveal more of Himself to us! When we open up to Him, He lets us know Him more, too. He's an endless treasure!! So in chapter 5, she starts off with complimenting His head and eyes and cheeks and moves on to His body and legs. Same deal--we start off in our relationship with Jesus knowing so little about His character, His desires, His personality, His purposes. And as we grow in our knowledge and love of Him, we discover more and more about Him and can't help but fall deeper in love! :) 

So then, when it gets to verses like 7:7-8 "Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, 'I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of it's fruit..." It's not so weird to think of Jesus saying that to His Bride, because He's saying I LOVE everything about my Bride--the deepest, most vulnerable and intimates parts of her--I want all of Her. And that's a much greater feeling than any human being can ever give you, isn't it?? :) I hope so!

I should note that I haven't really done much actual studying on this. As in reading different interpretations and all that jazz. I just read one book called "Passion for Jesus" that first introduced me to this take on the book, but this whole body part equals vulnerability is really my own thoughts from personal study. Hopefully, Spirit-led thoughts, but still my own. I invite you to read through this book from start to finish on your own and decide for yourself what you think. Leave me a message telling me what you think! :)  

My prayer for you is that by reading that book, you realize that no matter what, the banner over you is always Jesus' love. May that knowledge always give you comfort & protect your heart so that you can focus on pouring that love on others. :)