Love. Stronger than death

John Eldridge, the reknown “Wild at Heart” author, in 2000 published “Journey of Desire” the book written a year after the death of his mentor, friend and co-author of “The Sacred Romance”, in my lonely opinion, the seminal work of Eldridge. I remember savoring my first exposure to the book in 2002 and 2003 as Jean and I went through a couple tough surgeries ( my back and Jean’s open heart) and the recoveries that followed.

I did not know then the death of my best friend as I now know, but Eldridge wrote with Brent Curtis tragic death in his shadow. I am re-reading Journey of Desire now with an inkling of what he felt. Trying to gain perspective. This verse gives me such hope. I’m trying to unpack it today.

Song of Songs 8:6-8

For love is as strong as death;
ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol.
Loves flames are fiery flames —
the fiercest of all.
7 Mighty waters cannot extinguish love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.

Chains hold men. Their strength binds, shackles feet and hands. Keeps men from freedom. Their bodies, their wills, restrained.
The heart is chainless, unshackled. It’s freedom knows no bounds. By it’s design, God spoke volumes about love. Laying not a path of duty to bind ones love but by releasing freedom, even the possibility of betrayal into the love equation, God secured chainless love. That expression, that picture keeps me held in His beauty. By owning freedom, I give freely, loving God from the fountain of desire that flows in the deepest trenches of my bottomless soul.
Married love is like that. Man and woman, enveloped, shaped by God’s ultimate love triangle, give each other freedom, no chains to bind. Ardent love is as unrelenting and final and supreme in its eternal power as death is. Love that emanates from HIm grips us, chains us to hope and binds us to His purpose for us. And by living in harmony with Him, the fiery flames, that burn fiercely in a marriage are ignited for one another and shall not be extinguished. Chainless love. The same love as Christ for the church, the bride for Christ.