October 11, 2022
Wideness
This past weekend our opening hymn included a description of God’s love as “Widely as his mercy flows.” I’ve also always loved the hymn “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” – to its multiple tunes. And who can forget the wonderful Vacation Bible School song “Deep and Wide, Deep and Wide, There’s a Fountain Flowing Deep and Wide”? (Which by the way should and always be sung with the full hand motions! Stretching hands and arms top to bottom for “deep” and side to side for “wide.”)
I like to think of God’s love as a wide embrace gathering in all peoples of every tribe and nation.
There’s way too much narrowness in the world. I hear things like “we can only do so much as a church.” Or “our nation needs to be more concerned with itself rather than the world.” Or “just how much love should I be expected to give to other people or how much forgiveness?”
From what I read of the gospels, there is no end to God’s love in Jesus Christ, and according to the Gospel of John there’s not even a beginning. It just always was, and always is, always will be.
The word for wide in Spanish is amplio. I like that. Ample. Abundant. Plentiful. Wide.
And that’s the way I like to think of God’s grace. As wide as possible!
In Christ,
Pastor John D. Morris