Secret Love

I was thinking about concealed or hidden affection... No one really wants love to be hidden but it often is. Why? Maybe because of a lack of certain communication skills or in seeming opportunity to warrant communication.

There can be blockages or funny masked methods that express love. Men kid each others in almost insulting ways saying things in humor. It is really affection of some kind but the signals can seem a little mixed. Strange how that is.

"Open rebuke is better than secret love." Proverbs 27:5 KJV

The verse above is a proverb and Hebrew proverbs have a few defined rules and if you know them it makes them easier to understand.

There are three kinds of parallelisms we see in the book of Proverbs. Truth is built using these parallelism that take short statements or nuggets of truth and builds them into a structure of wisdom. Here they are:

Synonymous Parallelism (Repetitious) - Repeating to reinforce a truth
Antithetic Parallelism (Contrastive) - Just as one side or concept is true the other opposite concept is also true
Synthetic Parallelism (Completive) - Expanding a truth with a new or reinforcing truth

Now let's look at the proverb above with the verse that accompanies it:

"Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." Proverbs 27:5-6 KJV

What would we say about the proverb now? It is a little contrastive and a little completive.

Rebuke and love seem like opposites. Few people enjoy a good old fashioned rebuke. Maybe on some level the invisible person could like it better than being invisible.

What about the unloved person? I'm not talking about the person who has few people that love them. That is sad. But, I mean the person who does not love themselves... the person who does not know that God loves them in a deep way that penetrates the soul.

What good is our silent secret love? It is good for something but how much better would it be if it had a voice. Sure... there are barriers...

I think old me, who is in the twilight of his life reflecting back on what was, would tell younger me some things about this subject. He might have regrets about how silent I was... how un-creative I was in making opportunities happen to communicate love. Would he kid me about it? Or would he look me in the eyes and say, 'Listen. You need to get before God and let him love you. Let him love you until it overflows out of you. Then get out there and make opportunities with God to tell people the truth about His love that is now your love.'

No one will get hurt if we keep our mouths shut and mind our own business... or will they?

Silence is easier but is it better?