Song of Solomon 2:1

Song of Solomon — also called Song of Songs — is a book of ancient love poetry, likely depicting the passionate love between a bride and her groom. Many readers throughout history have also understood it as a picture of God's love for his people, or Christ's love for the church. Here, the beloved woman describes herself. Sharon was a fertile coastal plain in ancient Israel, well known for its wildflowers. Both the 'rose of Sharon' and the 'lily of the valleys' were common, unassuming blooms — not rare or cultivated, but wildflowers growing freely in open fields.

God, I confess how often I try to become something rare before I believe I am worth loving. Help me receive what you have already said — that I am seen, I am yours, I am enough, exactly as I am. You love wildflowers. Let me rest in that. Amen.

She doesn't say she is a rare orchid or a prized bloom tended in a royal garden. She calls herself a wildflower — the kind that grows without permission in open meadows and quiet valleys, that nobody planted, that shows up whether anyone is watching or not. And she is the one being loved extravagantly. There is a whole theology hiding in that image. If this verse echoes — as many have read it — something of how God sees us, then hear it plainly: you do not have to be extraordinary to be beloved. You grew where you were planted, in ordinary soil, on unremarkable ground, and you were noticed. Most of us spend enormous energy trying to become something rarer, more impressive, more worth loving. But the beloved in this poem claims her beauty without apology, without credentials. She is a wildflower. She is loved. Those two things are not in spite of each other — they are inseparable.