Arise.

Arise

Included in this season’s Kinship Cards is a special 8 x 12 poster created by AGB. We call it Arise. It draws its life from the Song of Songs.

My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.”

This invitation comes from the heart of the Song of Songs. In the wisdom literature of Scripture—alongside Psalms and Proverbs—this book stands apart. There is nothing quite like it.

Here, an unnamed woman is passionately in love with her beloved. She lives in a garden—tending it, nurturing it, cultivating life. It is a place of belonging. A place where she is at home.

Dr. Robin LaBarbera writes that beloved means “granted special treatment or attention.” Synonyms include adored, cherished, esteemed, loved, admired, prized, favored, treasured. And then she adds, “Unfortunately, I am intimately familiar with the opposite of beloved: forgotten, ignored, abandoned.”

A few years ago, on the first day of spring, I opened my Bible. It had been a while. I landed in this passage, and heard the invitation of my beloved in a way that felt both intimate and unmistakable.

See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.

As I read, I glanced across the room at my granddaughter Lennon, waiting as patiently as she could to meet her new brother, born just hours before. And in that moment, I sensed it:

It’s time.

Time to step out of winter.
Time to join the celebration of life and love.

I’ve stayed close to these verses ever since. And I find myself continually struck by the way the woman in the garden lives, so rooted in love, so alive to beauty, that she almost seems to ask:

“What was this thing they call the Fall?”
as though it were a long-forgotten memory.

When AGB created the Arise poster, she shared that it felt like her song, her story. She holds fast to Zephaniah 3:17. For her, this is the song Jesus sings each day. Over her. Over me. Over you.

The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.

May you hear the voice of your Beloved calling:

“Arise, my beloved one… come with me.”