“The season has changed, the bondage of your barren winter has ended, and the season of hiding is over and gone.
The rains have soaked the earth and left it bright with blossoming flowers.
The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived.”
— Song of Songs 2:11-12a (TPT)

Isn’t it beautiful to dive into this poetry? Rich and vivid in its descriptions, we receive sweet reminders of invitation, springtime, love, and relationship. It’s the last line of these verses that sticks out to me.

The season for singing and pruning…

This translation includes both words, “singing” and “pruning,” because they are homonyms in the Hebrew language. So, while it’s including both possible meanings in this translation, I just find it interesting!

I love that both singing and pruning are included here.

When I think of singing, I think of joy, expressions of worship, and the lighthearted descriptions of spring adorning this passage. When I think of “pruning,” on the other hand, I think of the former season I thought we just read past! Isn’t the wintery sadness supposed to be behind us by this point in the text? Pruning doesn’t seem to fit with the pleasure of spring we are reading about.

And yet, this reminded me of something I’ve been wrestling with for some time. When was the last time you experienced one emotion at a time, carried out for an entire season? For me…that’s never. Isn’t it more realistic that we constantly juggle and balance varying emotions? In the seasons of winter, we still find glimpses of hope, peace, and joy. There are moments to celebrate, even when we go through difficult seasons.

And similarly, when we are in joyful seasons of spring, there are moments when we hear of sad news, we mourn with family loss, or our hearts break with others who are struggling.

As sisters in Christ, I think it’s important to remember we can hold more than one emotion at a time.

While one rejoices over an engagement, she can also sit in grief with friends who are single and long for marriage. When one is enjoying a fruitful and life-giving season, she can simultaneously cry with her sister who is in a season of struggling and desiring to raise a family.

So, if you are feeling tension over what to feel or what emotions to embrace, as if you have to pick one…just know we are complex people with capacity to be “singing” and “pruning,” if you will. In fact, I believe this is biblical! Romans 12 reminds us:

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”
— Romans 12:15

Take a moment to consider the various seasons we experience simultaneously. I cannot imagine going through them without the ultimate hope of Jesus to cover each from beginning to end. And with this hope, we can comfort those who are needing reminders of God’s faithfulness. We can rejoice with those who are experiencing it in evident and tangible ways. We can experience singing and pruning…together.  

— Emily Heaton