See Me Not Black Forever

Songs of the Soul

Practical Wisdom of Encouragement

Your donations and subscriptions makes these articles possible.

Look not upon me, because I am black [dark], because the sun hath looked [gazed] upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Song of Songs 1:6

As I began this renewed visitation to this insightful book, I must be frank, for verse did not speak to me.  So, in the haste of day-today living, I set it aside but then the Holy Spirit spoke volumes to my spirit.

See me for I am not black forever. Black is not my natural color - it is just that my skin has become tanned by the sun, as though the sun glanced off me.  The Hebrew word here is not tanned, rather 'glanced.' This subtle change offers me great encouragement.  

No bird of prey knows that hidden path, no falcon's eye, has glanced at it.  Job 28:7. My friends, if you know Jesus you are on that hidden path where no predator can see you or know your path.

There is a family story about the son of my third great grandfather, Bethuel.  Around 1830 in Ohio, Bethuel, as a young lad, was going from one place to another.  On a dark and stormy night Bethuel had to venture out.  There was only a narrow path with the forest encroaching upon all sides.  This was more of an animal trail known only to the locals and not the bandits and robbers who frequented the area preying upon unsuspecting victims.  Bethuel was safe and hidden nestled on this secret path.

And where it seems the sun really penetrated deeply beneath my skin it is only because my mother's sons parched me.  The word in the Hebrew for parch comes from, inhabit the parched places of the wilderness.  Jeremiah 17:8

Forcing me to sit in the sun all the time guarding their vineyards.  Now look at my vineyard!  See how I neglected it!  I have had no opportunity to care about my own spiritual beauty, and so the sun may have penetrated to my insides, as well. When we speak about guarding, the Hebrew concept relates to a state of mind, of internal mindfulness.

My dear friends we need to keep our eyes focused upon Jesus.  Many temptations will attempt to distract you from your spiritually enriching time with the Lord.  Some of you, along with myself, have a calling into the dark underworld to expose the plans of the enemy.  I do not tarry long, but no man or woman goes into enemy territory unscathed.  I must quickly ask the attached itself in any way to my life, brain, or body.  This is the essence of spiritual warfare.  Even with this I bear scars from my calling, just as Jesus bore His scars from the Crucifixion.

The reason I appear black has two causes. The first cause is from the sun, which has tanned me for I am now subject to time, whose passage is marked and measured primarily by the sun.  It is Hebraic belief, and I do believe it so, that before a soul descends into a body it is pure and incorporeal; and an unborn soul's consciousness is not subject to the physics of time and motion.  Awareness is simple, immediate, limitless, and instantaneous. But once a soul is embodied and attached to a human being, it lives under the sun and its consciousness is restricted and subject to the physical laws that dictate the parameters of human thought.  I do, however, believe that as Believer's we do not live under the sun and under the Laws of Nature.  Our faith allows us to live above any confinement.  We are only caged when we allow ourselves to be trapped.  So, the soul appears black on the outside, since divine light she possesses in potential remains trapped within her.

I once fasted 40 days and nights for my daughter.  At the end, the Lord blessed me with this intense 72-hour period of prophecy, light, love, and warmth that nearly burst out of my physical body. Despite the awesomeness, I cried out to God to please cause it to cease for I could not endure His glory in my finite body.  We do have some limitations.

The second cause for which I appear black is because my mother’s sons parched me.  The human soul has metaphorical siblings.  Some, like abstract thinking and theoretical reasoning, are the children of our Heavenly Father, but there are also siblings from the earthly mother.  The human body is mother to the soul in the sense that it is only through the physical body that the soul is born into this world.  What was previously a Pure Intelligence has combined and interacted with the material world of the brain and body, and now has siblings such as faculties, also born of the body.  Her mother's sons are inherent mental powers, such as the imagination, the feelings, and other tools of the human mind.  They parched me, blackening me even on the inside.  If we experience this in part, imagine what Jesus took on, God in the flesh!  This life in the boy was sacrificed to atone for our sin. 

They were forcing me to guard their vineyards.  Planting a vineyard is the metaphor equivalent of embarking upon a fresh enterprise.  The budding clusters, and later ripening grapes, represent the early stages and it is only when the grapes are trodden, and wine fills the barrels that the objective is achieved.  Being made to guard the vineyards of others means I was forced to serve ends other than the purpose I intended for myself.  I was used by Solomon to acquire the crown, wealth, power, lust, and other desires.

I have had the joy of a vineyard.  I know full well that without tending and watering, the harvest would be small or bitter, filled with weeds crowding out the nutrients for the sweet grapes.  I must spend time away from my vineyard, as you do, to care for the mundane things of life, such as laundry, dishes, cooking, bills, and so forth.

Now look at my own vineyard; see how I have neglected it.  I haven't kept the Word, or the wisdom and holiness, which is my own vineyard, my own personal goals.  This has blackened my complexion and dimmed my radiance-even my internal, spiritual light.  Yet all this would quickly disappear if only I did not have to be in the world’s vineyards; if I could avoid the sun and abandon the material world!

Oh Lord, see me not black forever!  I repent of my sins against You my Holy God.  Oh, that I long for the day, when there will be distractions and I can bask in the Light of Jesus, forever and ever!

May this day you spend time with God so that your radiance bursts for and that sin not darken your door.

Celeste

___________________________________________________________