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LOVE AND NATURE (SONG OF SONGS 7:10-13)

REFLECTION

The theme for our reflection is “Love and Nature.” Love is an intense feeling of deep affection and intimacy mutually shared by a husband and wife. Nature is the collective phenomena of the physical world, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations. We shall reflect on the fact that nature provides a haven for refreshment, restoration and intimacy to a couple’s relationship.

Dear friend in the Lord, the fascinating features of nature provide refreshment, restoration and a heightened sense of intimacy and affection among couples. Solomon’s wife invites him to take a trip with her to experience the beauty of nature in the countryside and to refresh their romantic love. “Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages. 12 Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom — there I will give you my love. 13 The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my beloved.” (Song of Songs 7:11-13) We are greatly encouraged as a couple or a husband and wife to take time out of our busy schedules to experience the beauty of nature and its benefits to our relationship. Nature has always provided humanity a haven for spiritual retreats and married couples are not an exception. For the married, nature offers not only a haven for spiritual retreat but a time to reflect and rejuvenate love and intimacy in the relationship.

The urban lifestyle or the hustle and bustle of work and business can have an adverse effect on our marriage relationship. There are couples who live together but lack intimacy and effective communication in their relationships because they hardly make time for themselves. In some marriages, both husband and wife are busy with work and business and their lives are marked by the mechanical routine of waking up early to go to work and returning home late and exhausted from Monday to Friday. Those who are committed Christian will attend midweek service or church group meeting after after work. Saturdays are dedicated to funerals, weddings and other social events. Sunday is for church services and when we have time in the evening we interact as a couple or a family. Some Sunday evenings are also preoccupied with external family meetings or visitation of friends. Some marriages are losing the deep affection and intimacy that brought the couple together in the first place. Again, the presence of children and family responsibilities can also take so much energy and time from the couple and if not managed well, it may affect their intimacy or marriage relationship. It is for this reason, that we must guided by the example of Solomon’s wife, who invited her husband to go on romantic trips to experience the refreshment and restoration of intimacy that nature has to offer them as a couple.

We must be intentional about going on vacations or picnics as a couple and sometimes as a family. We have the choice of making our marriage relationship a boring one or a pleasurable and enjoyable one. There are many places in Africa and for that matter Ghana that provide a pleasurable haven for couples to refresh their relationship. Examples of interesting places we can visit and spend a day or more are Wli Waterfall and other interesting places at Amedzofe, Afajato and Adaklu in the Volta Region, Han Cottage Botel which has a Crocodile Pond and Kakum Forest and canopy walk in the Central Region. We also have Nzulezu (the water settlement) in the Western Region, and Mole National Park in the Savannah Region among others. Another ideal place to embrace nature is the beach and its breeze. Hold hands and walk in the water together, sit or lie on the sand, gaze at each other and express deep affection for one another. Ghana is extremely blessed with natural tourist sites that couples can take advantage of throughout the year. We must learn to retreat into the bosom of nature and to return home refreshed and revived as a couple.  We must plan financially towards these trips and ensure we make time for them. Life is too short for us to spend most of our married life in the boring, busy and meaningless hustle and bustle of urban life. Nature gives our love relationship a breeze of refreshment and restoration. Unfortunately, many couples do not know this secret and even if they know they hardly make time to reap its benefit. Watching movies or favourite sports programmes together and being on social media the way day cannot revive our relationship. These are only addictive and individualistic was of whiling away the time. Nature provides us with pleasurable and memorable moments and also enables both husband and wife to focus on each other.

In summary, we have discovered that couples must take time off their busy schedule to experience nature and its benefits of restoration and refreshment of their relationship. May our marriage experience the benefit of nature. Shalom.

PRAYER

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of nature. Grant us the wisdom, knowledge and resources to explore nature for the benefit of our marriage relationships. Amen.