Q:  Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women?  Where has your beloved turned?  Let us seek Him with you.

A:  My Beloved has gone down–descended to His garden. Song of Songs 6:1-2

And you will be like a well-watered garden, and like a spring whose waters will never fail. Isaiah 58:11

          In these verses we see that a simile is intended, and the Bride of the Beloved Christ is taken as a garden.  The very next verse of the Song (v. 3) confirms this conclusion with the following:  “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine”, a well-known wedding vow.

          The Lord Jesus is now, has always been, and will always be the suitor, and everyone else the object of His affections AND advances.  “For God so loved the world…”  But Note:  one happy day in the future, the woman will become a suitor also.  Jeremiah 31:22  And, as prophesied in the Song, the woman searches everywhere for Him, not resting until she finds Him.

          That He has turned to a secret place is apparent from the questions, “Where has He gone?  (To) where has He turned?” What is not apparent is to whom is the location a secret?  To the Bride?  No, for she gives the answer in a mystery: He has descended.  Notice that she has not gone UP to Him, nor need anyone look for Him there.

          How many look for the garden on high, the heavenly garden, in heaven?  How many have set their hopes on going up, or crossing the “River Jordan” in a figure crossing from death into heavenly places?  Do you not know, have you not heard, has it not been explained to you from the beginning:  We have this treasure in earthen vessels?  Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is in your midst.”

          What occurs in the garden between the Beloved and His love is forever sacred, not to be discussed, nor made common.  It is intimacy of the first and highest order.

          If one is to become a garden and the Beloved has descended into His garden, it may easily be seen that the secret place of the heart has become His dwelling place.

The heavens are My throne; the earth is My footstool.  Where is the dwelling you could build for Me?

In My Father’s house are many habitations.  I go to prepare a place, that where I am you may be also.

          And so it may be seen that He no longer dwells in buildings made of stone, steel, bricks and mortar.  But He instead prepares the heart, as a “bed of sweet savor aromatics, to pasture his flock there and to gather anemones”, and then He descends to it.  You will find Him there, in your own heart, waiting for you.  Go to Him quickly!

Blessed are You, O Lord our Wonderful God, King of Forever, for You have given us the Treasure of Yourself in these earthen vessels, and You have turned our hearts into gardens of Your delight!

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