May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.  A loving doe, a graceful deer -- may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love (Proverbs 5:18-19).

Think with me for a moment about hot, passionate, meaningful, romantic, mind-blowing, sensual... and biblical... sex.  Sadly, our culture has framed this to be something of a paradox.  Most people think that the Bible -- like so many Christians -- is afraid to talk about sex.  Or perhaps they think that if sex is mentioned in the Bible, it's only brought up in a condemnatory, judgmental, legalistic way...

Actually, nothing could be further from the truth.

Proverbs 5:18-19 offers a great case in point:  praising the satisfaction that comes from a woman's breasts, encouraging lovers to rejoice and be captivated by each other's sexual love.  But this by no means the only part of the Bible that casts sexuality in such a positive light.  The first chapter of the Song of Songs (and, well, pretty much anywhere you look in the Song of Songs) reads more like a romance novel than what one would typically expect from a "religious text."  The metaphors from this section of the Bible are surprisingly graphic, and one definitely gets the sense that sex is something to be celebrated -- whether it be in the bed chambers... or at the dining room table... or in the green, green grass beneath a canopy of trees in the forest!  The third chapter of Ruth describes the way that a couple of the ancestors of Jesus Christ hooked up -- with a story of subtle seduction, involving a midnight meeting at the bed of a single man who becomes obviously aroused by the sense of invitation from a single woman... If you understand the context, it’s a pretty racy scene -- and yet it’s also indicated as a story of righteousness and godliness!  And if that wasn't enough, 1 Corinthians 7:3-5 implies that something is seriously wrong if a married couple is not enjoying regular sexual interaction; in fact, to go without sex is to be "deprived," according to the words of the Apostle Paul.

Make no mistake about it -- God created man and woman and designed sexuality as an integral part of their being.  Sex was (and is) God’s idea!  Consider the way a penis is designed and the way that a vagina is designed [just imagine all the search engine hits that this post is going to get now that I've included the words "breasts" and "penis" and "vagina" and "sex" all on the same page!]... One doesn't have to have a doctorate in anatomy to figure out the genius in the structure of our sexual organs.  Sex is supposed to be fun and enjoyable and meaningful and healthy...

I'm tired of Christians being portrayed as asexual, repressed zombies.  I think it's tragic and absurd that we've strayed so far from this full and fun picture of biblical sexuality to our modern-day misconceptions of Puritanical pragmatism.  It may be an uphill battle to realign expectations in this ultimately more-biblical direction, but I'm thankful for wise King Solomon for offering me a benediction to rejoice in the wife of my youth.  I'll say "Amen" to that, just about any day. :-)