Seal over your heart

“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame.” (Song of Songs 8:6)

My husband, David, and I married in 2002 and we recently celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary. “Love is as strong as death” is etched inside our wedding bands, a verse that had particular meaning for us because he was a widower and I had lost both my parents.

Among those attending our wedding was our then-teenage niece, Mary, whose biological aunt was David’s late wife. We celebrated Mary’s wedding on Saturday. Her groom, Andy, wore a jacket in which the lining had been custom designed with photos of Mary and notes she had written to him throughout their courtship. Andy loved his bride so much that he surprised her by literally wearing her expressions of love for him.

This was the kind of love the shepherdess had in mind for her beloved when she told him in the Song of Songs, “Place me like a seal over your heart.” And the entire biblical book is a blazing dialogue between the couple expressing the power and beauty of marital love. “It burns like a mighty flame,” or in Hebrew, “like the very flame of the Lord.” Many believe Song of Songs is an allegory of Christ’s love for us, because he overcame the power of death in his resurrection and offers us a love that is eternal.

Jesus wore his love for us to the Cross and beyond. May we seek to love Him, and each other, as He first loved us, celebrating love wherever we find it, “for love comes from God” (1 John 3:1).