Shade-trees and roses

It is a sticky-hot day in southern NH. Two friends from church got married this afternoon - Paul and Greer. God is smiling. Greer's best friend gave the most beautiful toast I have ever heard... she truly sees Greer through the eyes of Christ, and it was...beautiful. Humbling. I had never seen Greer that way, and I wonder how many other treasures I have passed by because I am not looking through His eyes - am not loving with His heart...

Lenny Spitale gave a message during the ceremony (he is such a neat man with the most tender and caring of hearts), speaking of the Song of Solomon: to Paul, Greer is a rose among thorns - all other women are thorns to him compared with her. To Greer, Paul is the tree under which she finds shade and rest.

I was thinking about these verses... God must have to really make the woman stand out to the man as one in millions... Women are different: It is not hard for us to spot a good shade-tree and go sit under it. And if it proves to be a good shade-tree, we are ready to stay there. Not seemingly so with men: it seems if God did not make all other women thorns in their view, they would just keep on seeing roses. :)

I suppose the moment when a woman is no longer a rose among roses, but a rose among thorns, is the moment a man knows he would marry her. And he needn't worry about whether she would marry him because by the time God has clarified his view, she has probably already been resting in his shade for quite a while. :)