There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy (ELW 588, focus on verses 3 and 4)
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 the 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 a 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
The writer of the lyrics of this hymn, Frederick W. Faber, was accused of being somewhat of a sentimentalist in his writing (he also wrote the words to the hymn, “Faith of Our Fathers”). But his emotional words in today’s hymn hit on something special: His words recognize the troubles of life, call out our error in making God’s mercy and grace too small, and lift up our souls with the promise of God’s eternal presence. So far-reaching is God’s presence that all of creation is blessed by it. May you believe that you and your loved ones are in the reach of God’s mercy and grace.
Prayer
Merciful God, may the length, width, and depth of your mercy surprise us every day. Amen.