From Every Angle

Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved.

— Song of Solomon 1:16

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From every angle, our Well-beloved is most fair. Our various experiences are meant by our Heavenly Father to provide new vantage points from which we may view the loveliness of Jesus. How friendly are our trials when they allow us a clearer view of Jesus than ordinary life could afford us!

We have seen Him from the mountain peaks, and He has shone upon us as the sun in His strength, but we have seen Him also from the lions’ dens, and even there He has lost none of His loveliness. In the experience of suffering and pain, from the borders of the grave, we have turned our eyes to our soul’s spouse, and He has never been other than ‘beautiful.’ Many of His saints looked upon Him from the gloom of dungeons and from the martyr’s flames, yet they never uttered an ill word of Him but died extolling His surpassing charms.

To keep our gaze on the Lord Jesus is noble and pleasant employment. Is it not unspeakably delightful to view the Savior in all His works and to perceive Him matchless in each? To shift the kaleidoscope, as it were, and to find fresh combinations of matchless grace? In the manger and in eternity, on the cross and on His throne, in the garden and in His kingdom, among thieves or in the midst of cherubim, He is everywhere glorious in His beauty.

Examine carefully every little act of His life and every trait of His character, and He is as lovely in the minute as in the majestic. Judge Him as you will, you cannot censure; weigh Him as you please, and He will not be found wanting. Eternity shall not discover the shadow of a spot in our Beloved, but rather as ages revolve, His hidden glories will shine with even more inconceivable splendor, and His unutterable loveliness will continually ravish all celestial minds.

— Morning and Evening (Charles Spurgeon) - May 22: Evening

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Ok, beloved! (excited)

What if - just what if…part of this life here is about learning to see our Beloved from every angle?

What if every word we read, every conversation we have, every interaction with creation, every relationship, every emotion, every tear, every desire…it’s all meant to turn the looking glass just ever so slightly, to allow us the opportunity to see Christ in new ‘colors,’ new ‘shapes,’ new glory?! ‘New vantage points from which we may view the loveliness of Jesus?’

We’re to gaze on Him, beloved, yes! But not on Christ, a cold, colorless ‘symbol,’ stagnant and lifeless, like a block of stone or a wooden idol. Nay! Rather, we’re to gaze on the One our soul loves and longs for, the One who remains unchanged in character, yes - but whose work in us and in the world is in constant motion, the One whose beauty shines forth in a wonderful array of mystery and variety and contrast, does it not? Darkness and light, barrenness and fruitfulness, poverty and riches, fasting and feasting, dying and living, suffering and glory…He reveals the treasures found in His word and His world and His body by letting us experience ‘shades’ of ‘color,’ day by day. And all for the purpose of giving us a chance to know more of His loveliness, beloved, that we might be in awe of His great gentle power and bow down to kiss His feet in humble adoration!

We’re to examine Him, beloved - to study Him, every last inch of Him! We know what a delight it would be to study every last inch of our ‘little b’ beloved, yes? (gentle) To have the time to let eyes linger and fingers caress slowly and bodies join Together as One, becoming more and more alike - body, mind, and spirit? Well, just think (amazed) - this is our time to do just that with our ‘big b’ Beloved! These days that, at times, feel meaningless and never-ending…they’re not, beloved. They’re His gift of time to us - so He can shape our perspective and offer us as many different ‘views’ of Himself as possible - our eyes lingering on Him, our fingers caressing the pages of His Word, our very selves becoming more and more One with Him as we seek Him here - before we are ready to see and know Him fully There, yes?!

What if God had placed us in a world that was already perfect in every way, beloved? A world without darkness, without cold, without pain - where all was Beauty all the time? What if we never knew sickness or longing or fear or death? What if we never knew what it was to be in need? If we never had fires or waters through which to walk? Our Creator God, He could have made things that way. He could have ‘saved us’ from all that we believe to be difficult in our humanity. He’s all-powerful, after all. But beloved? (gentle) If all we’d ever known, ever experienced, was perfection, would we treasure Him? Would we see our need for Him at all? Would these lenses that we call ‘eyes’ ever be lifted off of self for even the very briefest moment? And would we even want life to be that way, truly? A life without contrast, without mystery, without change? A life of stagnation? And if this perfect Beauty was our reality now, would we even be capable of enjoying and appreciating the perfection that is promised us in the Life, in the Love, yet to come?

‘To find fresh combinations of His matchless grace,’ beloved. This is our aim, our quest during our days here. We trust that He will use each slight turn of the glass to reveal more and more of His glory to us. And as we view Him, over and over and over again, ever from a nearly imperceptibly different angle, through the passage of many years and many experiences, we have faith that He will ravish us with His goodness, His grace, His tender Love, and draw us ever closer to Himself, do we not? (tender) And where else are we truly safe and known and held tenderly than in the presence of our Beloved?

‘To keep our gaze on the Lord Jesus is noble and pleasant employment’ indeed, beloved. Let us seek to do so, Together, for our good and for His glory, now and always.

Amen.