There's a Wideness in God's Mercy, ELW 588
1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in God's justice
which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows
are more felt than up in heav’n.
There is no place where earth’s failings
have such kindly judgment giv’n.
2 There is welcome for the sinner,
and a promised grace made good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in his blood.
There is grace enough for thousands
of new worlds as great as this;
there is room for fresh creations
in that upper home of bliss.
3 For the love of God is broader
than the measures of our mind;
and the heart of the eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
But we make this love too narrow
by false limits of our own;
and we magnify its strictness
with the zeal God will not own.
4 ’Tis not all we owe to Jesus;
it is something more than all:
greater good because of evil,
larger mercy through the fall.
Make our love, O God, more faithful;
let us take you at your word;
and our lives will be thanksgiving
for the goodness of the Lord.
Devotion
How wide is God’s mercy? Wider than the sea. Wider than the "measures of our mind." Wider than outer space. The number of the stars in our galaxy is greater than all the grains of sand on the earth. Now that's wide! The measurement is mathematics beyond imagination. I can't relate to that wideness.
I long for a different space to find meaning. I long for Jesus, who welcomes me in my failings with healing that comes through the cross. Jesus' encompassing, steadfast love gives me a totally different kind of space ... a hiding place where Christ makes me stand free and rejoice. In Christ, I am alive.
Prayer
Lord of life, you have made a safe place for us in the wide space of your love and forgiveness. Help us to understand that your forgiveness is beyond our limited view. Make us instruments of your love for others and for your creation. Amen.