Wilderness Intimacy
L.A.H.S.

"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved" (Song of Songs 8:5)? 

It is up. Every step should be higher and higher. "The path of the just is as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day." We prove His promises--yea and amen--day by day, as we tread on and up; and as we know Him better and attain more to the "full stature," the shadows of earth grow less, and we see all things more from His height in glory. But it is only leaning that we learn Him. Not only at His side, but leaning upon Him. John's gospel is full of what he learned as he leaned on "Jesus' bosom," and his epistles with the beating of Christ's own heart. 

"Oh! what is my Beloved?
They oft enquire of me
And what in my Beloved
So passing fair I see?
Oh! no, 'tis not His glories--
He's worthy of them all;
'Tis not the throne and sceptre
Before which angels fall." 

It is just Himself in all His unspeakable beauty; and we learn something of it where and how John did. Adam could hide from Him in the confusion of sin's disobedience; but He rested not till the son of Adam could lay a human head upon His breast in the form--not of an angel, for that were distance--but in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, the so-called carpenter's son. 

To cast ourselves with all the thousand surging needs of life, and all the conflicts of our spiritual walk; with all the countless needs of others measured against the weakness that cries, "What are they amongst so many?" wafted over the myriads of unsaved and weary, thirsty souls. To cast ourselves and all this upon His beating heart, and let Him carry us and them through the wilderness path. 

Shall we learn no secrets there? Shall we only give burdens and sorrows as we lean? Ah, no! We gain that which makes us bless the burdens and the cares and the conflicts, though it was not these that brought John and Mary so close; it was the utter enjoyment of His presence--the love that burned in their hearts for Him. 

We glory that it is the wilderness which proves to us the great power of Him who trod every step of its trackless dreariness, and Who, as our great High Priest, gives us the "streams in the desert," until we cry aloud and sing for the fullness of His filling and His love.