Amazing Love!

There is a childhood hymn we all know that says, “Jesus loves me, this I know.” From our earliest memories, we were told that Jesus loves us. Yet we cannot really take that truth inside of us any better than we could as small children.

Jesus loves us. God loves us . . . enough to send his own son into our cruel world as a helpless infant. It simply makes no sense to us. It’s beyond imaginable. I love to contemplate the words of Kayla McClurg.

Imagine it: there is a God of all creation who wants to love us, who wants us to love ourselves by caring for one another. It is a simple path, but many of us prefer complication. We seek validation by striving after rigorous standards of perfection, or by positioning ourselves to defend against and obliterate all perceived threats to our well-being. We have not yet let ourselves go down into the boundless depths of God’s love for us. To more fully fathom our belovedness would mean to trust the hands that hold us, to lean back and discover our roots in a source of wellness beyond our own. So much pleasure awaits—as we make generous responses to greed, speak loving words to hate, generate peace. How relaxed and confident we can be as the stress and strain of life wash away.

By: Kayla McClurg
Season and Scripture: Epiphany Year

Life would be so different if only I could truly experience God’s amazing love and all that it means. I want to share with you the words of a wonderfully inspiring hymn and then a YouTube video of a very gifted pianist.

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Please enjoy “And Can It Be” on YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PtmZcuPCXo4