Song of Solomon 3

In this chapter, the maiden is having a dream that she can’t find her beloved. She jumps out of bed in the middle of the night and scours the city, looking everywhere for him. Finally, she finds him: “Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go.” (vs 4)

As I read that, it made me think of how tightly we hold to something we think we might lose or something dear that we’ve lost and finally found. Letting go is sometimes the hardest thing to do, and when this maiden found her man, she certainly wasn’t going to lose him again!

Knowing that there are certain spiritual parallels to be made between the love relationship of these two people and the relationship God wants to have with us, this also made me think about how God doesn’t want us to let Him go. He wants to be held!

Think back to the story of Jacob the night he wrestled with God: “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’” (Gen 32:24-26) The “man” Jacob was wrestling with was God! And here, God was saying that if Jacob had not held tight to Him, He would have gone.

Jesus did something similar when He walked on the road to Emmaus with the disciples after His resurrection: “As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them.” (Lk 24:28-29) Again, Jesus would have gone on if the men hadn’t “held on to Him” and urged Him to stay.

Even in the midst of love, perhaps because of love, God will go if we do not hold on to Him. Of course, this doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care whether we want Him or not. He cares deeply! But love is a two-way street. God loves us and is always pursuing us, but if we don’t want Him, He will not force Himself on us. If we are willing to lose God’s company, He will go away from us. He is not intrusive.

God wants us to hold on to Him. He can be held—we may grasp His hand at this very moment by faith. He is willing to be held—He is seeking to win our love, not trying to escape from us! He Himself must be held—not a creed or tradition or doctrine. He wants to have a personal relationship with you.

I must admit that I don’t think I’ve ever gotten as worked up about spending time with God as I did with “the one my heart loves,” especially when we were first falling in love almost 20 years ago! But all of the love that grows and blossoms and spills out of our hearts for our mate was engineered, designed, and originated by God. He is the Author of all of it, and He gave us the ability to have an intimate love relationship with another human being so we could understand in some small measure how He feels about us.

God wants to be the One our heart loves. He wants us to hold Him and not let go!