There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy (Evangelical Lutheran Worship 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.
Text: Frederick W. Faber; Music: North American; Public Domain
Devotion
“For the love of God is broader than the measures of our mind,” the hymn proclaims. And yet, way more often than we’d like to admit, we struggle to believe it. Not because God’s love is lacking or finite, but because we place bounds around it—quietly, subtly, sometimes without even realizing it. We draw lines around who belongs and who does not. We magnify the requirements and restrictions while minimizing grace. We make God’s love smaller than it truly is.
But God’s love is not confined by our categories. It is wider, deeper, and more generous than we can fathom. The invitation before us is not just to believe in that love, but to live it—to “take God at God’s word” and allow our lives to reflect that same mercy and kindness. When we begin to trust the wideness of God’s love, our lives become something more: a living response of gratitude for the goodness of the Lord.
Prayer
Expansive God, open our eyes to see beyond the limits we place around your love. Your love is deeper and wider than we can comprehend. Help us not only to receive this love, but to live it out with our whole lives. Amen.