Song of Solomon 1:15: “Behold, thou [art] fair, my love; behold, thou [art] fair; thou [hast] doves’eyes.”

Song of Solomon 5:12:  “His eyes [are] as [the eyes] of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, [and] fitly set.”

So here we have these beautiful romantic passages.  I mean what can be more romantic than to tell you lover they have beautiful dove eyes.  I have a pet dove named Jonah (Hebrew for dove). He has two beauty black little eyes like tiny dark marbles.  I can barely make out a pupil.  Yet encased in its little head that seems perfectly shaped and a little beak that is in direct proportion to his head, cover with soft feathers that are more like white lavender than feathers everyone seeing him can’t help but fall in love with him.  I let Jonah out of his cage and as I held him he at first resisted.  Not like a parrot or other bird which will peck at you and struggle to get out of  your hand.  Jonah will put up a mild struggle for a few second before settling into your hands and as you softly and quietly whispered to him you will feel him relaxing. At first as I reached out for him I could actually see fear in his eyes but once he was nestled in my hands I believe he felt contentment.

We communicate with animals and birds with our emotions, not our words.  They feel our body vibrate and they know if you are agitated or calm and they react to that.   It is not what you say but how you say it.  If you tell your pet dog he is a filthy, vile, ugly dog, but say it filled with love and care for him, he will just happily wag his tale. He does not hear your words, he hears you emotion.  If you have ever been around horses  you know how important it is to approach a horse quietly, softly and gently, more to his side than in front of him.  Animals are looking for two things, friend or foe and they have highly developed senses to pick up on the waves of energy, vibrations or whatever you want to call them and interpret them either as friend or threat.  They do not have a wide range of emotional understanding like we humans do.  So they may misinterpret fear as a hostile threat.

The Holy Spirit is compared to a dove.  Thus, we can assume the Holy Spirit is gentle, harmless and easily offended.  I know we compare moves of the Holy Spirit like a big blast or a lightning strike.  But that is not how I see Jonah, he is just a gentle, peaceful creature.  His gentle cooing is so restful and peaceful, not like my friend’s parrot Kia with his Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak, Yak, Yak, Yak at a decibel level that is quite painful to the ear.  Then when he finally shuts up he gives a little innocent childlike, “Hi Ki.” Like he was Pavarotti who just finished his grand finale and is waiting for his applause.

So I find calling one’s lover a little dove is something very romantic.  In the Song of Solomon, however, both the Shulamite woman and her beloved Solomon call each other a dove but they say they have dove eyes. The word eyes in Hebrew is ayin like the Hebrew letter Ayin.  It means insight both spiritual and in the natural.  The most common explanation by commentators for the expression dove eyes is that because of the shape of the dove’s head they have binocular vision. They can only focus and see one thing at a time.  Doves mate for life.  You see them flying with their mates side by side, they land almost at the same time.  They have eyes only for each other. It is believed that is what the Shulamite woman and Solomon are saying is that they only have eyes for each other.  Can you imagine  God telling you that, He only has eyes for you.  He moves next to you, with  you and when you settle down He settles down at the same time with you. He is mated to you for life.

But Matthew 6:22 tells us something about the eyes. Matthew 6:22: “ The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”  The word used for light in the Aramaic here is not the Aramaic word for light noohra but the word used here in the Aramaic Peshitta is sheraga which is the wick in a lamp or candle. It is the wick that gives off the light and carries the flame.  One can read anger, hatred, peace, love or passion in one’s eyes.  I look into Jonah’s eyes and I see innocence, vulnerability, peace and a willingness to trust.

The word for dove is yona or Jonah. It comes from a Semitic root meaning to  hold firmly. The dove was so named its warm loving relationship holding firmly to that relationship for life. When we think of the Holy Spirit we can think of the Spirit of God holding us  firmly in His hand, mating with us for life and being with us constantly.  When the two lovers in the Song of Solomon speak of each other’s dove eyes they could very well be speaking of the warmth of their love  firmly holding their eyes on each other.  Rabbi Samson Hirsch relates yona to yayain which is the word for drawing out.  In other words doves eyes draw out the love within us.  Everyone who meets Jonah falls in love with him.  He has such gentle eyes that it just seems to just draw the love out of people.  So too with the Holy Spirit whose presence just draws love out of us.

Song of Solomon 4:9 “… thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes…”  Just one look into his beloved eyes and his heart is ravished.  To follow the parallel of the Song of Solomon as God’s relationship with  us, we can say that with just one glance of our dove eyes those eyes of looking up to Him with innocence, love and trust will ravish and melt His heart.  Just as that little mite of a bird I call Jonah can melt one’s heart, so too can we melt the heart of God if we just reach up to Him with the vulnerable, tender, innocent and trusting eyes of a dove.