My Song is Love Unknown (ELW 343, verse 6)
6 Here might I stay and sing—
no story so divine!
Never was love, dear King,
never was grief like thine.
This is my friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend!
Devotion
My mother loved the hymn “My Song Is Love Unknown.” If not the favorite, it is very close, as she has requested that it be included in her funeral one day. It is a powerful telling of the One she has followed through trial and tribulations, loss and grief, joys and deep sorrow. And it is Jesus’ faithfulness ultimately that invites her to continue to find hope and consolation in this life. My mother never imagined losing three of her four adult children to heart complications prior to their reaching midlife. Yet this is our family story. Easter Saturday means so much to us because we cannot deny the pain that is real. We also cannot fathom a life without hope. And so we wait and sing the songs that hold us close and continue to teach us the most about God’s love and faithfulness.
“Never was love, dear King
Never was grief like thine
This is my friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.”
Prayer
Dear Lord, as we wait on this longest of days, center us in you. Amen.
(Further reflection for this day: Easter Saturday can be a heavy, often grief laden time. As we consider a prayer practice today, I offer theologian and educator Howard Thurman’s beautiful poem “How Good to Center Down.” May you find your center in Christ silently as we await his coming).