L word.

I was about to begin this post with, "I would not be a typical female if I did not carry on a journey of the heart". However, I stop short on making such a definitive statement in English... some days I wish I could speak another language, like Hebrew or something - with it's palate of words, rich in meaning and purpose. My statement requires some preamble, for this statement is both correct and incomplete.

To assert that the heart is known only to a woman, is to greatly discount and disvalue the valiant hearts of the men in my life, and the countless others unbeknownst to me (but perhaps, known to you). It is to discredit the bonds that exist in men's relationships that are so deep that they remain indefinite by plain language. I think this is truly beautiful, strong, and full of courage. The journey of a heart, is one edified by God who calls, woos and transforms them.

I would never have fathomed that this was possible, nor that I would ever think, write or believe such things. I would have judged Christians proclaiming such a notion as ridiculous or impious a few short years ago. But, I cannot deny the truth of my seemingly fruity proclamation. Fruity because my appetites for passion, chastity, loyalty, companionship, shared vision, service and hope have been tempted to enjoy the overabundance of less satisfying alternatives that each of us are subjected to every day; and again seemingly fruity, because it's simple; uncomplicated.

Yet, I know with every fibre in me, that in all of the forms that I have thus far been acquainted with: love is Great, Vast, Unending. God is Love. And I am in love with Him.

I didn't know, that I could love God as a lover. I don't think this is an overly popular teaching - and certainly a scary one for the religious types (not unlike myself) who are trying to live the good life and get in good with God on their own. Thus, it never occurred to me that God might desire us so much, that He craves (and created us to enjoy) the same depth of intimacy with us, that we taste in romantic relationships. Yet, He has exposed me to the deepest blushes of my female heart - knowing me better than I will ever know myself.
Staggering - I know. Odd seeming, I agree. But - gah! - thank God it's true. I would not give up knowing God in this way (or myself enlightened by His passionate love) for the sake of claims to sanity - that just doesn't matter anymore, in the light of this.

Five years ago, I purchased a ring and had it engraved with Song of Songs 2:7, which is "Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the does and the gazelles of the field, do not awaken love until it so desires". It was a promise to God and a constant reminder to myself to surrender that part of myself to Him. I did not understand, what I am beginning to understand about that charge and promise. That the love awakened, would be God Himself - and that I could trust Him with even this part of my heart. Furthermore, this verse initially appealed to me as clamp down on my unruly passions that I needed - for a time. However, the impression that verse now leaves upon my heart is this: the charge of one created Nature to another; a charge to my created heart for the purpose of preparing it for the love, intimacy and passion it was made for; and for igniting the heart in its due season.

The love of God has allowed me to embrace my heart as a woman, a daughter, a friend, a human; to uncover it from the mounds of defense I had heaped upon it as life ravaged it's tenderness - allowing its strength to beat and stretch in all manners of direction. It's a love that I've fought, that I fight, that I wish that I would just get over myself and give into more readily, because its never the scary thing that I think it is. Love is my daily refreshment and song of joy and delight. It is also a place in which to endure faith, longing, pain and sacrifice - even just today, I was crying to God in the agony of it. But there's a great, huge, awesome, wonderful BUT: the words of Mother Teresa were never more exacting, when she penned, "I have found the paradox is this: that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt and only more love." More love to love God; to love yourself; to love your family, friends, strangers, and those who have caused the deepest of hurts.

There are mysteries in those around you, that you would never guess - and that remain unbeknownst to them. There is an infinitely mysterious heart of God, teeming with a love that changes, refreshes, feeds, clothes, directs, moves everyone and everything caught up in its tide. There are mysteries in you so deep that you don't even know them - that can be both an exciting and terrifying prospect. I ask God, for you and I to understand newer and deeper and better that, love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. I does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13: 4-13)