“Behold, you are handsome, my beloved!” (Song of Solomon 1:16)

Before we knew Christ, He was the Beloved of His Father. As Saint Augustine wrote, if God is love, then in the Trinity, “there are three things: the lover, the loved and the love”. We see the Love between the Father and the Son in many Scriptures: The Day Jesus was baptized, and the day Moses and Elijah spoke with Him, “a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 17:5). 

 God loved His Son, and yet, because He loved you, He sent His Beloved to die for you. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all … It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:32-35). The love the Father had for His Son is now your love. Now you participate in their love: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love” (John 15:9). 

 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). “We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

 He is forever, your Beloved. Throughout eternity, you’ll discover more of why the Father loves Him and why He was willing to put His Son to death so you could share that love.