Song of Solomon 1:10
 
     Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with chains of gold.
 
I’m doing some facial exercises lately, one of which is to smile as if I really mean it. Then I am supposed to press into my cheeks to deflate the smile, somehow. I don’t think my cheeks have any muscle in them at all. There’s nothing to resist when I press. I don’t think my cheeks have any use whatsoever. Oh, yes, I know, they keep the food in my mouth while I chew, but what kind of ornaments could possibly be on my cheeks?
 
What does God see on my cheeks?  Maybe they look like Christmas ornaments. Maybe my dimples are more pronounced than I think. Maybe He takes my cheeks between His thumbs and forefingers and chuckles at me like we do to children. The thing I am left with in this contemplation is that God calls a portion of my body, that I never think of on a daily basis, as being lovely. Every cell of my being is a building block that makes me like I am. God shaped each one of us according to His design and will, and He sees you and me as being lovely.
 
I don’t see the ornaments. I don’t see the chains of gold. In ancient days there were no safety deposit boxes in which to store wealth, so the women wore wealth: gold chains around the neck, gold coins sewn into headdresses, etc. The ornaments and the chains of gold are invisible in this natural realm. I must look with my spirit to see my value, and my neck is laden with wealth. So is yours.
 

Song of Solomon 1:9
 
     I have compared you, my love, to my filly among Pharaoh’s chariots.
 
Sometimes we are forced to stand back and look deeper at the significance of what we are contemplating. If a suitor compared me to his horse, I might not take that as a desirable expression of love. But when it is God, and I know He created that horse, that graceful, gentle little female filly, I can see the love and admiration in His eyes. I don’t think anyone disagrees with me when I say that the horse is an admirable, noble creature. A horse’s allegiance to his or her master or mistress is a study for our own allegiance to the Lord.
 
My daughter, as a little seven-year-old, had the meanest pony on the planet. Daphne would bite or kick, whichever end happened to be closest, anyone who came near her—especially me. That pony terrified me. But when Jolie came into the stable, Daphne would put her nose in Jolie’s back, and my daughter could walk anywhere, in the fence, outside the fence, and that nose stayed fixed on the very center of Jolie’s back.
 
I hope God can compare me to His filly among the chariots:  loyal, persistent, following, loving Him wherever He goes, whatever He does, whatever He says, I’m right there. All my senses are fixed on Him.