Tag: vineyard garden

A Tour of a Secret Garden

Simple expressions of love have rippling effects, and even in a “garden enclosed,” life is powerful. It is organic. It can’t help but overflow walls, spread to remote places, and ultimately win even the hardest of hearts.

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No More Artificial Flowers!

Little girl running in a garden holding flowers and free

Do you know the song Artificial Flowers by Bobby Darin? It’s about an orphan girl forced to make paper decorations for rich women’s hats. She dies and finds out that God has a special garden just for her, with real flowers she doesn’t have to abrade her little fingers on.

This touching song was shared with me several years ago, and then recalled this week when reflecting on the Shulamite’s story. I’ve also been thinking about my own past and wondering what to share about it. We all have them, I know: stories of abuse, regrets, or both. The Shulamite woman talks about hers briefly, because she has moved on.

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🥀 … One of the things I’d like to mention is …

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The Bed of Heaven (Song 1:16-17)

Picture if a secret garden in the woods

Look at you! How beautiful you are, my beloved, and how charming! Our bed is green! Song 1:16
I find it intriguing that when the Shulamite woman is in the garden returning the gaze of her beloved that she at first sees his beauty, and then immediately a bed. She obviously saw what he is thinking! :-) But this is no ordinary bed. The first thing she notices is that it is green.

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The Impatient Patience of Love (An Intro to Song 1:7)

“I am tired, Beloved, of chafing my heart against the want of you; Of squeezing it into little inkdrops and posting it. And I scald alone, here, under the fire of the great moon.”

Being in love and in a wilderness – is there any more wrenching place to be?

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God’s Stigma and the Dark Secret of The Shulamite

Woman's shadowy form with light coming through her

Those who have “the mark” know that it is deeply painful, deeply personal, and one of the most profound honors imaginable. The Shulamite woman in the Song of Songs was one such woman. What little information she does reveal is very intentional. Consider the following:

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