"I Am My Beloved's Garden..."

"WHERE HAS your beloved gone, O you fairest among women? [Again the ladies showed their interest in the remarkable person whom the Shulammite had championed with such unstinted praise; they too wanted to know him, they insisted.] Where is your beloved hiding himself? For we would seek him with you. [She replied] My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my beloved’s [garden] and my beloved is mine!" (Song of Solomon 6:1-3a AMP)


Soaking Story Time!  As I was leaving my friend's house after Soaking about 6 years ago her daughter's then boyfriend, Lucas, (now husband) stopped me at the door.  (what a horrid sentence..sorry)  He touched my arm and asked me to step back into the living room.  When I did he told me he couldn't let me leave without telling me what he felt God had told him to tell me earlier in the evening.  Ok, now I'm listening.  Looking me right in the eye he said, "God wants you to know you're the most beautiful woman in the world".  My first thought was, "yeah, right".  But then he repeated it.  And Christa looked right at me and said, "Candy!  Receive it!"  To which I replied, "Ok!  Yes, I receive it!"  And I walked out the door into the night to contemplate this new mystery.  I mean, what??!!  


Seriously, how many of us really believe that we're beautiful?  That was the beginning of the transformation of my heart.  It wasn't about being beautiful on the outside and yet it is.  It was about accepting myself, the whole package, inside and out, physically, spiritually, emotionally, with all the flaws and misgivings and second guessings and "wish I hadn'ts" and "if I'd onlys" as His [garden].  I am a place and a person He wants to walk with/in and talk with/in and spend time with/in because He is drawn to me. For heaven's sake He created me!  And I have allowed Him full access to every moment, every memory, past, present, and future to tend and to beautify and nurture and fertilize so I can become the Eden He intended me to be. 


The last part of verse 3 reads like this, "He feeds among the lilies [which grow there]."  Other versions clarify this by saying "He feeds His flock among the lilies".  I love that.  To me that means that He brings others to me, to Our garden, the one He has tended me into becoming to feed on the truth and wisdom He is always nurturing there, here, in me.  Wow.  


I am my beloved's garden.  Come, eat.