Ending this month’s gratitude focus after a sweet Thanksgiving celebration that followed an even sweeter wedding celebration, I want to briefly step back further in time to focus on one ancient couple, to profile two people who were overwhelmingly delighted in and grateful for each other.

We find much of what we know about their relationship in the biblical text called Song of Songs or Song of Solomon. And while many Bible readers have tried to write off the contents of the book as more spiritual than physical, as an allegory about Christ and the church, I wholeheartedly embrace it today as a exquisitely woven reflection of gratitude for the gifts of sexual expression, trust, and physical design as rightly celebrated and embraced only within marriage between one man and one woman.

What does such gratitude for one we love look like, according to the mindset of these two people?

For the husband, called Lover in this epic poem, it means he is thankful for and attracted to his bride among all other women (2:2). He is also overwhelmed with the beauty of who she is all on her own (4:7, 9-10, 12), and grateful that she is content right in the place where she knows she belongs: at his side (7:10).

The wife, simply called Beloved, is also equally grateful for the loving husband to whom she has been joined. She is thankful for what he does (2:4), who he is (5:16), and how he can dwell contentedly in her arms (8:10).

While the Lover highlighted in this poem and blog was, sadly, not married to only one woman exclusively due to both political conventions and cultural norms, the rejoicing and pure revelry we see highlighted in that small book points to a kind of love and an accompanied attitude of thanksgiving that each married person is invited to embrace and nurture. It is one that will even make those observing say, “We rejoice and delight in you, we praise your love…!” (1:4). And it will reap a harvest of beautiful, faithful years together.