Vineyard Days – Through the Lattice

For sixteen months I have waited for Vineyard Days  to reach this point because I thought I knew what was coming. Turns out, it is all I thought – and more.

Isn’t that just like our Beloved?

I was a little girl when I first came to love the well-known picture of Jesus knocking at the door, dressed in a white robe and sporting long burnished hair and a pensive expression. It hung either in my childhood home or my grandmother’s house, I don’t recall which. But I was always aware of it. Since I spent a lot of time at home (obviously…) and at my grandmother’s, it was a visual reminder of Jesus’ constant presence.

The name of the painting is Heart’s Door – which must first be opened to Him before Song of Songs 2:8-9 can ever begin to have its effectual working in one’s life…

“Listen! The Voice of my Beloved! Behold, he is coming, climbing on the mountains, leaping on the hills! My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.”
(Song of Songs 2:8-9 NASB/NIV)

My heart’s door was opened to Him at the tender age of five. At 9, 18, 33, 38, the 40s, and 49, Christ’s presence was manifested in repeated occurrences of hearing, “Let there be light!” as Holy Spirit hovered over the darkness on the face of my deep. At each of those ages – and stages – a significant and progressive work of His Spirit was taking place. I did not breeze through it; especially the adult years. But 9 and 18 were pivotal in receiving His Spirit and His Person. Guess where I had to return to at 33?

His truth is simple, but don’t confuse it with easy. We can choose to be distracted (and I was, for five years), defy it (did that too), deny it (proved that didn’t work), or dress it up (thankfully, His truth broke my stony heart before I engaged in that charade). I was learning He says what He means and means what He says. He had never stopped speaking…the difference was that now I was listening.

I was in my early 40s when, from the above scripture, another picture was painted for me. This one didn’t hang on a wall; instead, it was etched into my heart.

It was the revelation of a lonely Bridegroom standing behind walls I had erected, gazing through the windows of my soul, peering through the lattice – hoping I would notice Him…

Let’s rejoin the Bride…

“Listen! The Voice of my Beloved! Behold, He is coming, climbing…leaping…”

She heard Him before she saw Him. His continued speaking was paying off in her new awareness. She was cultivating ears to hear what He was saying, and as a result her senses were heightened. And now to see the evidences of His nearness was comforting, even better than the comfort she had received from the daughters of Jerusalem.

“My Beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.”

The Shulamite was expanding her vocabulary. Glorious, goodly, pleasant were the descriptors she chose for this One like a gazelle. On the other hand, He appeared as a young stag with the strength of a ram. His bearing was that of a governmental chief ; a strong support like an oak ; a mighty man. Simultaneously He filled her senses with this parallel recognition of His tender beauty and His commanding dignity.

She could not help but respect Him. But respect from a distance often seems safer, doesn’t it?

To reach into the more that is unveiled in Song of Songs 2:9 …

“Look! There He stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.”

…join me in Through the Lattice, Part 2.

Beholding Him ~ Gracefully Free

 

Leafy lattice photo credit: wit via photopin cc
Heart’s Door by Warner E Sallman

Shammahs Field LLC/Shammah Ministries is the biblical counseling, life coaching, and spiritual growth ministry entrusted to Wayne & Nancy Bentz. You can learn more about the resources they have to offer at shammahsfield.com and nancybentz.com.