Lynn Cowell
“His and Mine”
"My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies."
Song of Solomon 2:16 (NIV)
Growing up, there were many Valentine’s Days I wished would have never happened. In elementary school, it was the year with the long walk home from school. My red paper-covered box, which contained no Valentine from my favorite crush, felt heavy for being so empty.
Maybe when I am a teenager my love life will get better, I hoped.
My hope was in vain. In fact, if I had known how my first Valentine’s Day in high school was going to play out, I would have just stayed home. Our student council decided Valentine’s Day was the perfect time to host a fundraiser. Students could purchase flowers to be delivered: yellow to your best friend, red to the one you love and white to the one you wanted to ask out.
First period--the predictable yellow carnation arrived with a note from my best friend. Not the color I was looking for. Second period--no flower. Third period--no flower. Is there any way I can get out early? I asked myself as my nemesis waltzed in, arms loaded with flowers.
By fourth period, I was begging for the day to end when in came the delivery girl.
"Lynn Martin."
Me?
I sprinted to the front, grabbed the white flower and glided back to my seat. The base drum of my heart pounded through my blouse while my mind spun: Who could this be from? My eyes quickly scanned the note: "I’d like to ask you out.
-Scott." Scott? As in a senior?
My excitement lasted only long enough for logic to set in. He’s a senior somebody; I’m a sophomore nobody. This has to be a joke, I told myself. Shoving the flower and note in my bag, I shoved down my broken heart too. I just hope nobody saw me was all I could think.
That was the year I began to ask a lot of questions, my heart crushed by my crush: Why doesn’t he ask me out? What does she have that I don’t? Why doesn’t he want me? Answering the question, What’s wrong with me? became my mission.
Whether it’s a memory from long ago or a pain as fresh as yesterday, we’ve all experienced rejection in one form or another. We’ve all wanted to be wanted--whether it was by a boy, a club, a friend or a group.
However, the truth is we’ve always been wanted and always belonged … to the Lord.
In other words, we belong to Love Himself. As Song of Solomon 2:16 tells us, "My beloved is mine and I am his …" Indeed, I am His.
While others have rejected us, He wholeheartedly accepts us. Let that soak in for just a moment. Say it out loud. I am His.
What we have longed for and still want today, we already have. Friend, we belong.
The truth that I didn’t have to search to belong, or struggle to find love and be loved, completely changed me.
Jesus, I am Yours. You are mine. Thank You for loving me
and filling my heart with exactly what I have always wanted--
to be wanted. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
TRUTH FOR TODAY:
1 John 4:16, "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." (NIV)
1 John 4:9, "God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him." (NLT)