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Isaiah 5:1 "Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill."

 

Twice Isaiah refers to God as "my beloved" here. It is such an intimate term, something we associate with lovers, it's making me wonder if I think of God as my beloved. I am reading St. Augustine's Confessions, and he frequently refers to God in similar terms. His all encompassing love for God comes through on practically every page, giving me the same feeling about whether I love God so fully.

 

I think many of us don't let ourselves love God this way. Even if we get there sometimes, and I think I do, it tends to fade again. God is everything, all the love I feel - the motherly, the romantic, the fraternal, the passionate - comes from Him. Those feelings are part of God, they are all aspects of His love for us. So if anyone is my beloved, it should be Him, I should love people and cherish things because they are from and part of Him. Augustine asks "what do I love when I love you?" and realizes it is not created things in and of themselves, yet it is all those created things in God, because He is them. (Confessions, Book X, chapters 6-7).

 

God is all things, including all love. He is the source and creator of love. He is love. He should be our beloved above all else, and we should love other things and people for and through our love of Him.