The Banner That Spoke Her Name

In 1944, when Allied forces liberated the town of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the Dutch residents hung every banner, flag, and scrap of colored fabric they could find from their windows. After years of occupation, they wanted the world to know they belonged to freedom again. One photograph from that day shows an elderly woman named Margaretha van den Berg standing beneath a massive orange banner draped from her apartment balcony, weeping with her hands pressed to her chest. A journalist asked why she was crying. She said, "Because now everyone can see whose side I am on."

Song of Solomon 2:4 says, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love." In the ancient Near East, a banner was not decoration. It was a declaration of ownership, allegiance, and protection. When a king raised his banner over a people, he was saying before every watching nation: these are mine, and I will fight for them.

The Beloved in this poem is not hiding her relationship. She is not whispering about a secret affection. She stands beneath the banner of her Lover's commitment and lets the whole world see it. This is what the love of the Almighty does. It does not love us quietly or tentatively. It claims us publicly. It drapes itself over our lives so visibly that even strangers can see whose side we are on. We belong to the One whose banner is love — and He is not ashamed to fly it.