Uncovered

I have been doing a verse by verse study of Song of Solomon this year. It has always been a book I have seemed to avoid, but the end of the book 1000 Gifts takes us there, as did the True Woman 2012 conference, so I took the plunge and dove in.

By chapter 5, they are married and the dailyness of life sets in. He wants to come to bed late and she responds,”I have taken off my dress, How can I put it on again?” That translates into,”Why are you bothering me at this hour?” I don't doubt that it may have taken a while to put enough on to run to the door, but really? My clothes are off, and it's too much bother to run to the door or have a servant open it for you (she is the king's wife, after all). She's worried about dressing and having no slippers when he is out in the cold and damp trying to come in to see her, get warm and dry, and to cuddle and see her after a long day's rule. How true to life this is, gals. I know once I am tucked in, I don't want to uncover and move either. She refuses for a long time to budge, but she then is moved with love and does what she needs to do, only to find that he got the message that he was not as important as her own comfort, and he went elsewhere to find the sheltering love he had sought with sweet words and gentle actions. He did not burst in, demand her to arise, or open the latch through the hole without her permission. He was a perfect gentleman.

So now she feels the fool. Where did he go? She grabs her shawl or veil and runs around the streets of the city to make it up to him. Now both of them are cold and exposed, and she is about to be further exposed...the watchmen grab her shawl or veil from her, supposing she is a prostitute running about in the night! It is dark and they don't recognize her. No self-respecting woman is out alone in the dark, covering herself from sight. She is exposed...her covering stripped from her, and she is beaten out of disrepect for her supposed intentions.

So she has gone from uncovering herself with clothes, covering with blankets, refusing to take off the blankets and clothe herself, to clothing herself, covering to shelter from the night, to being stripped of that covering all in a matter of a few minutes. And why? Because she did not respond in love to the person that mattered the most to her. Not only did she not respond in love, she responded with selfishness and total disregard for his comfort, safety, and well-being. By staying covered in her own warmth, she has sent forth a chain-reaction of chilling the relationship, body, and soul. Instead of getting up and letting herself be a little chilled momentarily and letting their joint-warmth fill their souls and bodies, she has reaped the consequences of her selfishness. It is now evident to others and him that she has responded wrongly and that she has some making up to do. She is suffering the same fate as he...drenched with the dew, chilled in the night, and longing for the fellowship of a warming relationship with her husband. The whole of the night world can see it. Once they figure out that she is not what she first appeared to be. The whole of the town will be called in to find him. The sorted story of her rejection and laziness will be heard by every girl in town. The personal problem of selfish sin doesn't stay personal. The covering may or may not be restored, but the sin of selfishness is never hidden from the world. It is one of the most evident of the sins. And the effects spread whether we like it or not.

So are we willing to uncover for our loved ones? It is a temporary uncovering, just a few seconds of service, that they ask for. We try to make up for our unwillingness, but that pursuit only makes us desperate-looking, misunderstood by others, and breaks the fellowship we could have enjoyed. That nice warm bed wouldn't have been cold and empty that night had her heart not been that way first.

Arise, women, and then enjoy the warmth of the covering that you give to others, for it will warm you, too.