The Best Love Story of All

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy (or ardor) unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame (or fire, / like the very flame of the Lord).

Song of Songs 8:6

REFLECTION

Do you enjoy a good love story? Two people meet, they fall passionately in love, and the emotions sweep them away. The love stories we treasure most are not just a flash in the pan—they are the ones that go the distance, the ones that somehow keep the fire of passion alive over the long haul.

Today’s reading comes from a lesser-known book in the Old Testament—the Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon. This poetic book tells a love story about King Solomon, who was captivated by a young maiden.

Listen to the way this young maiden describes their love.

• First, she longs for permanence in their love—to be sealed forever between them. Her heart is sealed to him alone, and his arm bears a permanent mark of his love for only her.

• Isn’t it interesting that this poem likens the strength of love to the strength of death. Love and death are so powerful that every human must answer to them. Love is the most powerful force in the Universe.

• What about jealousy? Isn’t jealousy a bad thing? This word can also mean ardor. Ardor is great enthusiasm or passion. The maiden says love is passionate, full of zeal, and as unyielding as the grave.

• Finally, the maiden says love is like a blazing fire, a mighty flame. This is a reference to the most intense and radiant of all flames.

From the beginning of time, God’s passionate love has been pursuing us. In the story of creation, God made us for intimacy with Him. Yet we humans have lost sight of our first love. We went searching for other loves to fulfill our passions. Believe me, all too often, I have fallen into the trap of looking for love in all the wrong places.

So why is God’s love so superior to all other passionate loves we chase after?

• God’s love is permanent. Jeremiah 31:3 states, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Isn’t that what we truly desire? Not a fleeting encounter. Not a desire that leaves us empty. Not something—or someone—who will abandon us once we have been used up.

• God’s love is stronger than death itself. Every earthly relationship will one day come to an end—if not by anything else, then by death. Romans 8 declares, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life… nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

  
  

• God’s love is ardent - fierce, faithful, and unyielding, full of passion and zeal. He is unyielding in His plan to rescue us, to draw us back to Himself. Isaiah 37 says: “For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” How strong do you think the zeal is of the One who is called the Almighty? He will stop at nothing to keep pursuing you.

• God’s love is like a burning fire. We understand the way our hearts burn with passionate desire from a human perspective. But there is something unique about the fire of God’s love. It is a flame that cannot be extinguished. When we are captivated by the power and brilliance of the blazing fire of God’s love, all else grows seemingly insignificant.

Jesus poured out His life willingly as an act of obedient love to God the Father. He went all the way to death in His passionate love for us. This was God’s unstoppable zeal— His one plan He had been pursuing since the very beginning.

 After Jesus’ resurrection, He walked with some of His disciples on the road. They were distraught, believing that death had defeated God’s plan. They felt abandoned and disillusioned, blind to the very One who was still walking among them. In His grace, Jesus used that moment to pull back the veil, opening the Scriptures and revealing the grandest love story God has been writing since the beginning of time.

As He spoke, their hearts were awakened to this ardent love. They said to one another,

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Prayer –

Loving Father, We thank You for Your ardent love—a love that is fierce, faithful, and unyielding. From the beginning of time, You have been pursuing us, drawing us back to Yourself with passion and grace.

Lord Jesus, thank You for pouring out Your life, for going all the way to the cross so that we might know the depth of God’s heart for us. Set our hearts ablaze again. Awaken us to the beauty of this great love story You are writing—one that cannot be extinguished, one that endures forever.

Draw us back to our first love, O God. Teach us to receive and to respond to Your love with lives surrendered to You.

We pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.