Oh, Love, How Deep (Evangelical Lutheran Worship 322)
1 Oh, love, how deep, how broad, how high,
Beyond all thought and fantasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortal’s sake!
2 He sent no angel to our race,
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame,
And to this world himself he came.
3 For us baptized, for us he bore
His holy fast and hungered sore;
For us temptation sharp he knew;
For us the tempter overthrew.
4 For us he prayed; for us he taught;
For us his daily works he wrought,
By words and signs and actions thus
Still seeking not himself, but us.
5 For us by wickedness betrayed,
For us, in crown of thorns arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death;
For us he gave his dying breath.
6 For us he rose from death again;
For us he went on high to reign;
For us he sent his Spirit here
To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.
7 All glory to our Lord and God
For love so deep, so high, so broad;
The Trinity whom we adore
Forever and forevermore.
Text: Thomas á Kempis; Music: English ballad; Public Domain
Devotion
It is too marvelous, too awesome, too terrible to imagine that God “should take our mortal form”. Much less that God in Christ should and does pray for us. Yet, beloved, we are held in such tender prayer. And maybe prayer is this, that those who are praying, God and us, seek not ourselves, but each other. For this we may be truly thankful: “for love so deep, so high, so broad.”
Prayer
Abba/Imma, you seek us still. We seek you too. May we in seeking find and be found. Amen.