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28 Jul: Love That Outlasts
Love is as strong as death. Song of Songs 8:6
Scripture Reading: Song of Songs 8:6–7
In 2020, Alyssa Mendoza opened an email from her father late one night, laying out plans for her mother’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. The strange part? Her dad had died ten months before that email landed in her inbox. Turns out, he’d written and scheduled it himself while battling his illness, aware that he might not live to see the day. He’d gone further too, pre-ordering flowers for his wife to arrive on her birthday, their anniversary, and Valentine’s Day for years down the road.
That kind of devotion echoes what Song of Songs puts into words. “Love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave” (8:6). Pairing love with death and the grave feels backward at first, until you realize why: both refuse to let go of what they hold. Death keeps its captives, and true love does the same with the one it cherishes. The book hits its high point in verses 6 and 7, painting married love as a force so unstoppable that “many waters cannot quench” it (verse 7).
Scripture repeatedly frames marriage as a picture of God’s own love for us (Isaiah 54:5; Ephesians 5:25; Revelation 21:2). Christ is pictured as the groom, the church as His bride. God proved His love by letting Jesus face death in our place, so we’d never have to pay for our own sin (John 3:16). Married or not, we can hold onto this: God’s love outlasts and outweighs anything we could dream up.
By: Eliza Hollis
Go deeper on: Love That Outlasts
Reflect & Pray
How do you feel knowing how much God loves you? What reminds you of His love for you?
Dear Jesus, thank You for loving me so much! Remind me of Your love each day and give me glimpses of it.