Glory

What is your desire? What is it that you desire? What is it that you are driving towards? What is your focus?

She is my desire, she is the centre of my world. I long for her. My hand upon her, my lips upon her. To be close, to be intimate.

The conversation, the presence of her presence is no small thing. And yet a craving unsatisfied makes my heart sick. My focus blurred, my vision distorted, my body ache. I distract myself to cope, I avert my gaze. I smother my passion. I am not who I wish to be.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Adjust your focus. Come away with me.

Oh how I enjoyed my time with you Lord this week. You brought me to tears. Your presence so strong, it filled the room. Your train filled the temple. Pure joy in my spirit.

And yet my body aches. Wound up with many wounds, stuffed and stongy, slow to move, creaking and groaning, moaning and groaning. I’m tired, I’m worn out, but not without desire. Like a flame it ravishes my heart, and cannot be put out. I cover myself but remain exposed, I protect myself, but remain vulnerable.

The battle rages, but I refuse to surrender, I will not back down, I hold on to hope. You are my hope Lord.

I reach out, I hold on, I will not let go.

Song of Songs 2:13-14 Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed, and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms. Oh, get up, dear friend, my fair and beautiful lover—come to me!Come, my shy and modest dove—leave your seclusion, come out in the open. Let me see your face, let me hear your voice. For your voice is soothing and your face is ravishing. Song of Songs 6:4-10 Dear, dear friend and lover, you’re as beautiful as Tirzah, city of delights, Lovely as Jerusalem, city of dreams, the ravishing visions of my ecstasy. Your beauty is too much for me—I’m in over my head. I’m not used to this! I can’t take it in. Your hair flows and shimmers like a flock of goats in the distance streaming down a hillside in the sunshine. Your smile is generous and full—expressive and strong and clean. Your veiled cheeks are soft and radiant. There’s no one like her on earth, never has been, never will be. She’s a woman beyond compare. My dove is perfection, Pure and innocent as the day she was born, and cradled in joy by her mother. Everyone who came by to see her exclaimed and admired her— All the fathers and mothers, the neighbors and friends, blessed and praised her: “Has anyone ever seen anything like this—dawn-fresh, moon-lovely, sun-radiant, ravishing as the night sky with its galaxies of stars?”

Clearly Lord you know how I feel about her, for you write exactly word for word about my desire for her. You sum it up, in every detail.

This is not a fantasy, this is your truth, this is your prophetic description, this is your declaration. No pressure to perform, no guilt for imperfections, for weakness, for wounds. You transform us, from glory to glory.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face to face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

Once again this day I embrace what I cannot grasp, in anticipation of your glory, the fulfilment of your desire, the kiss of hope, the dawn of a new era. Beyond my dreams, the drive towards the light, the sunrise, the rise of the Son.