Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, ELW 631
1 Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heav’n, to earth come down!
Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter ev’ry trembling heart.
2 Breathe, oh, breathe thy loving Spirit
Into every troubled breast;
let us all in thee inherit;
Let us find thy promised rest.
Take away the love of sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.
3 Come, Almighty, to deliver;
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never,
never more thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
4 Finish then thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee!
Changed from glory into glory,
till in heav’n we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise!
Devotion
My Transfiguration/Valentine’s Day hope, dream and prayer is that divine, excelling, heavenly joy would come down about 18 inches, from our mind to our hearts—that face-changing would result from the heart-changing, unbounded love of God in Jesus! Too often in our relationships, trembling hearts become cold hearts and we cannot calm them by our own willing or warming! This is something God does to us through the Word, fixing us and making a humble dwelling place at the heart of every relationship!
Each year, on the day before Valentine’s Sunday, you’ll find me tying the largest red Mylar heart I can find to the processional cross. I do this so the BIG HEART of God can float above the symbol of the great loving sacrifice of Jesus for everyone and every relationship. Beneath that BIG HEART is where I’d like to build a booth in which to dwell!
Prayer
Dearest loving Jesus, who has come down to earth because the heart of God is so big, enlarge my capacity for divine loving! Amen.