I love the biblical book Song of Songs (though do have a question about it: I thought I had made a mistake when I called it Song of Solomon t'other day but now I think actually it is a translation thing and can be either - am I right or wong?). Aside from being hilarious in parts it has become to me an excellent way of realising the 1st love over the 2nd love. You can even start reading it with the girly ideals of husbandness (which shock horror I have felt on occasion) and get to the realisation that God is the one who does all that really good wooing and fulfilling. Tis really quite special, if you can look past the mental metaphors.
As a women I do feel I can relate rather well to the idea of being the bride of Christ. Nay, in line with the apparently classic North American teenage Christian teaching, I can quite happily consider Him to be my boyfriend for now (don't get me started on where the lines are in that relationship)! But I am all preprogrammed to seek a relationship with Mr Perfect... My question is, how do men do that?
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As much as I've been taught this idea that I am Christ's bride and therefore Jesus is my lover/boyfriend/husband, I still don't really get it. I mean, I get it intellectually on some level, and I get that Jesus is first in my life, and he will always love me and satisfy me more than even my future husband eventually will, and there are things that I should seek from him and not from others, but that's about as far as it goes for me right now.
I read this article the other night, it's mostly about Sufjan Stevens, one of my absolute favorite musicians, but it has a couple of paragraphs that touch on your question, how do Christian men become Christ's bride also?
http://www.theotherjournal.com/article.php?id=166
I must admit I've not spent much time contemplating being Christ's bride, mainly cos I don't see it as a personal thing. Christ doesn't marry every person individually (since marriage presupposes exclusivity), he gets married once collectively to 'the church' and the wedding will take place in heaven (Rev 19:7-9) so in any case we are only Christ's fiance now. That's not to take anything away from the beauty of the poetry of Song of Songs or Revelation, as the fact that we will one day know Christ as intimately as a wife knows a husband is mind-blowing!
Interesting article about Sufjan Stevens and the 'Christianity is gay' argument. The problem with that argument is it confuses 'eros' and 'agape' love. Agape love is sacrifical selfless love which is independant of gender (whoever said God was male anyway?) and sexual feelings. I wish we had four words for love in English as this would help dampen the confusion.
I'd like to meet a girl who's cheeks look like two halfs of a pomegranate. Maybe I should put an ad in a paper to that effect
:-D
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