The woman in the Song says: 'My beloved is mine and I am his.' It's mutual claiming, mutual belonging. She belongs to him and he belongs to her. It's the language of possession but also of devotion - the kind of belonging you choose.
This book is controversial in Christian tradition because it's explicitly sexual, explicitly about desire and pleasure. And it's in the Bible. That's important. It's saying that this kind of embodied, passionate, mutual love is sacred. It's worth celebrating.
I was in a tradition that treated sexuality with deep suspicion. I needed to learn that desire itself - wanting someone, being wanted, that kind of mutual claiming - is good. Song of Solomon gave me permission to enjoy my body and my husband's body without shame. It's a holy text about unholy pleasure. That paradox saved me.
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