“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” (ELW 587, verses 1 and 2)
Devotion
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 a zeal God will not own.
'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.
There is a great wideness of mercy, and it's bigger than my imaginings. I am glad to serve a God who is more merciful than I could ever be or aspire to be. The mercy of God inspires me to be more merciful, to act with justice in mind. For every line of exclusion I can draw in my limited vision, I find a merciful God who comes to erase it and who keeps pushing my imagination further to see all persons as included—to see beyond my silly boundaries.
We do, as the hymn says, "make this love too narrow by false limits of our own." I wonder, what would change in the way we live and treat our neighbor if our own boundaries were crushed or removed? What would be different in the way in which we work, live and minister to our neighbors?
Prayer
God of grace, make us gracious. May your love inspire us to love more, beyond our definitions and boundaries. God be near. Amen.