What Wondrous Love

I have been thinking this week how helpful the church has been at walking me into the story of Holy Week and Easter. From Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday and today’s Good Friday service, I have been able to engage with this amazing and great action of God on our behalf. It would be easy to miss Easter without this help. Unlike Advent and Christmas which have been so embraced by the secular world, at least in its symbols and music, Easter still remains somewhat hidden. Sure, there is a display in many retail stores of lime green plastic grass and milk chocolate bunnies, but we are not inundated with the sights and sounds of this holy time. I am actually glad for this. The Hosannas, the songs about the cross and Christ’s passion and the joyous music of the resurrection spring on us at just the right moment and lead us into sacred space. We do not become weary of these songs, unlike the Christmas carols that start up long before Advent has actually begun. By Christmas Eve, I am usually heartily sick of hearing them, to tell you the truth. I would love, just once, to hear “Silent Night” for the first time on Christmas Eve. But this is probably not to be unless I move somewhere far, far away from our consumer-based society. So I will just give thanks that the meaning of Easter has remained intact and requires some effort on our part. We have to attend the services, or at least make space in our lives to attend to the events as they unfolded so long ago. We have to make an effort to join together with other believers to say “Hallelujah!” once again and to be reminded that God has indeed begun the process of redeeming all things to himself. What a mystery! What a wondrous thing!

As I drove around town, stopping at the post office, the grocery store, the local chocolate place (okay, see the blog below), I had the old American Folk Song “What Wondrous Love Is This” running through my mind. How good and peaceful and thankful that made me feel. The words are simple, but they say what is in my heart today:

What Wondrous Love Is This
By: American Folk Hymn

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this
That caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down
Beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb,
Who is the great I AM,
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing,
While millions join the theme, I will sing.

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.
And when from death I’m free I’ll sing His love for me,
And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And through eternity I’ll sing on.