The Oil of His Name

Song of Songs 1:3
3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes (good ointments);
your name is like perfume (ointment, aromatic oils, purified oil) poured out.
No wonder the maidens (virgins) love you!

Yesterday, my husband pointed something out to me that I had never considered before.  I have read the verse above from Song of Songs countless times, so I was a little surprised that I had never made the connection that he did, that this verse could be related to the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25.  Of course, I then became intrigued and had to look at this story through this new lens!

As you may know, this parable is pertaining to the End-Times, when the Bridegroom of heaven returns to the earth.  We can probably relate to these ten virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom to arrive, but who became drowsy and fell asleep when he was “a long time in coming”.  Yet, while all ten of the virgins became weary in the waiting, still, five of them were wise and five were foolish. 

Five were prepared when he finally arrived and five were not.  The five wise virgins had extra oil for their lamps, but the five foolish virgins ran out of oil.  Five were welcomed into the wedding banquet and five were turned away at the door.  Five were known and five were not.

If you consider Song of Songs 1:3, this oil could represent the sweet perfume and ointment of Jesus’ name.  When the virgins have a revelation and knowledge of the name(s) of Jesus, then they are filled with love for Him.  In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul writes, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  The foolish virgins in the story were not known when they came to the wedding (Matt. 25:12) and I believe there is a direct correlation between us being known by Jesus and our level of intimacy with Him and our knowledge of Him.  The oil we need is the revelation of His name – the knowledge of who He is and what He’s like, what He thinks and feels. 

The reason the virgins in Song of Songs loved the Bridegroom was because they were partaking of the sweet fragrance of His name.  At the end of the age, there will be those who have lived a pure and virtuous life, yet who will be found lacking in actual knowledge of the Bridegroom and consequently, also lacking in love for Him.  

Lately, the cry of my heart has been a desperate plea to know Jesus more.  I keep asking, like Paul writes in Ephesians 1:17, for the Spirit of revelation that I may know Him better.  I want the fragrant oil of His name to be poured upon my heart, that I would know Him and be known by Him.  I want an intimate knowledge of His heart, His personality, His character, His thoughts, His words, His emotions, and His actions.  In that day, when He returns, I want to be found ready, with oil in my lamp, and with passionate love burning in my heart.

Happy 10 Months Justice!

So, Justice turned 10 months old on January 4th and it has been a really FUN month!  He’s such a funny kid and it is so much fun watching him learn new things and grow up into such a cute little man.  Here are some of the highlights: 

1.  It would appear that Justice will not crawl in the conventional manner, since he has mastered the art of what we like to call “Crawl-dragging”.  He uses his little arms to drag himself around with remarkable speed and strength – he’s going to have some serious biceps!  It is super cute watching him plant his hands on the floor and pull himself forward, up and over obstacles, through complex tunnels, etc. in order to get to his desired destination.  What is especially endearing though is that he has now started to follow us if we leave the room and he’ll get really excited when he finds us and will make a beeline towards us with a huge grin on his face!   He has also become more adventurous and will explore on his own, getting into trouble and always going for the places where he shouldn’t!  He’s terribly curious about anything new that he hasn’t yet encountered and he tends to love to go after all the things he shouldn’t – like electrical cords, garbage cans, Joe’s guitar, etc.  His new mobility has definitely made life more interesting, challenging and more fun!

2.  This month Justice got to celebrate his first Christmas!  He sort of got into opening the presents, with some encouragement and assistance, and he discovered the joys of Christmas tree decorations!  He has really enjoyed the gifts he got and it was a lot of fun watching him play with them.  We had a great time at my parents’ place for about 5 days and just enjoyed being with them and relaxing, playing games, watching Star Trek movies – lol – and seeing their renovations continue to take shape.  Justice especially enjoyed the cardboard paper my dad used to protect the flooring & trying to get his hands on their tools!   He also discovered their dishwasher and a love for remote controls!

  

3.  One more tooth is starting to come in on the top, so his 4 middle teeth are all through and then the next 2 on top are still trying to push their way through.  Unfortunately, one of his top teeth is having some troubles & we took Justice to the dentist just to make sure everything was okay.  It’s totally fine, but it looks all bluish around his tooth, which is apparently blood vessels that have burst around there or something & apparently this is normal, but it looks pretty nasty.  I’m hoping it doesn’t cause him too much discomfort or pain when that tooth finally breaks through.

4.  This month I have really allowed Justice to try a lot of new foods.  He has had several meats (chicken, beef, ham, egg yolk), pasta, rice, puffed wheat, and other little things from our plates.  He usually takes anything we give him and will sometimes make a funny face if the flavor or texture is strange to him, but he’ll still take more of it from you.  

5.  No more swaddle!  We finally weaned him from being swaddled for naps and sleeping at night & the transition went great!  He was already getting out of most of the time anyway, but we’ve been able to figure out other little tricks to help him settle down for sleeping.  I’d say the biggest challenge now is when he wakes up in the night needing his soother, since he still doesn’t know how to find it and put it back in his mouth.  If anything, he’ll hold his soother and just talk to it and get angry – lol.  The other thing he’s started doing, is that when he’s upset and crying in his crib, he’ll pull down the bumper pads to look out & try to see us.  As a result, since he often has his soother in his hand, since he has plucked it out, he ends up throwing his soother out of his crib!  So, I would really like to not have to get up several times at night just to give him his soother back, but we have yet to figure out a different solution.

6.  He’s drinking from both a sippy-cup and a bottle!!!  This was a HUGE challenge and I was becoming very frustrated and despondent, thinking it was never going to happen!  But finally, after praying and asking the Holy Spirit for help, I was able to figure out that the big problem wasn’t the sippy-cup, but the fact that Justice really didn’t like the formula I was trying to give him!  And I don’t blame him one bit, because I tasted it & it’s NASTY stuff!!  So then we were able to get him to drink apple juice from the sippy-cup & once he conquered that, we tried giving him whole milk.  At first, he didn’t like that either, so then I tried putting some apple juice in with the milk & then we had success!!  So I slowly increased the milk to juice ratio & then also tried the bottle again & he now loves it!!  While he could drink fairly well from the sippy-cup, it was quite messy & the bottle has turned out to be a lot neater.  He will currently drink an 8-ounce bottle of milk that has 1 ounce of apple juice in it.  I’ve tried a couple times to take the juice out entirely, but he hasn’t gone for it yet.  :)  But for the last couple days, he has had a bottle throughout the entire day & I have only breastfed him at night before bed, so it won’t be much longer and he will be weaned!!

7.  He’s becoming more independent.  Along with his new adventures in exploring the house on his own, he has also become really good at playing on his own.  He is very fun to watch as he plays with all his new toys and travels around the room to different objects and talks to himself or his toys.  It is also very freeing for me, as I am more able to get things done while he plays at my feet – it’s great!