Daily Devotional
February 5: Romantic Love
- Scripture: Song of Solomon 8:6-7
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love, all the wealth of one’s house,
It would be utterly scorned. - Reflection: Covenants and commitments between partners may be formal and legally binding, recognized by church and state. Or they may be privately kept and lived out.
Some partnerships last a lifetime. Some people have relationships in which one partner dies, and they go on alone. Some people have more than one spouse or significant other over the course of a lifetime. Some people’s relationships end for a variety of reasons.
This model of marital and committed love is also, at its best, a description of God’s connection to the community, or to humanity. It’s a different kind of family love, because it involves deeper layers of physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological intimacy. For some people, who have been within healthy and committed relationships, or people who believe in such connections, this image of connection to God, as well as to a partner, resonates. We also acknowledge that for others who have been in hurtful relationships, it may be a difficult comparison to embrace.
We focus today on the positive aspects of this form of love. Some of the most erotic and beautiful writing in the Bible celebrates romantic and sexual love within committed relationships. Celebrate the beauty and commitment within romantic relationships as gifts from God. - Spiritual Practice Prompt: Plan a special date or surprise for your partner. If your special person cannot be with you, or is no longer living, write a note to your beloved.
- Perfect by Ed Sheeran: https://youtu.be/2Vv-BfVoq4g?si=nXrCcmWJSshTCrVP
Blessing That Meets You in Love – Jan Richardson
It is true that
every blessing begins
with love,
that whatever else
it might say,
love is always
precisely its point.
But it should be noted
that this blessing
has come today
especially to tell you
it is crazy about you.
That it has been
in love with you
forever.
That it has never
not wanted
to see your face,
to go through this world
in your company.
This blessing thought
it was high time
it told you so,
just to make sure
you know.
If it has been shy
in saying this,
it has not been
for any lack of
wanting to.
It’s just that
this blessing
knows the risk
of offering itself
in a way that
will so alter you—
not because it thinks
you could stand
some improving,
but because this is
simply where
loving leads.
This blessing knows
how love undoes us,
unhinges us,
unhides us.
It knows
how loving
can sometimes feel
like dying.
But today
this blessing
has come to tell you
the secret
that sends it
to your door:
that it gives itself
only to those
willing to come alive;
that it vows itself
only to those
ready to be
born anew.