O LOVE THAT WILT NOT LET ME GO (TH)

TIMELESS HYMNS - A special feature where I choose a hymn that I have written about before. I revise and update it, and share it once again because I think it has a powerful message that we need.  This one was shared previously on February 6, 2011. 

          As we come to February, thoughts often turn to Valentines Day and the subject of love. So I began to look for some hymns which talk about God's love. 

          This week's choice has an interesting story behind its writing. It was written by George Matteson on the evening of his sister's marriage. His whole family had gone to the wedding and had left him alone. Years before, he had been engaged until his fiance learned that he was going blind, and there was nothing the doctors could do. She told him that she could not go through life with a blind man. 

          He went blind while studying for the ministry and his sister had been the one who had taken care of him all these years. But now she was married and gone. He had been a brilliant student. Some said that if he hadn't gone blind he could have been the leader of the Church of Scotland in his day. He turned to the pastoral ministry and the Lord richly blessed him, finally bringing him to a church where he regularly preached to over 1500 people each week. 

          But he was only able to do this because of the care of his sister and now she was married and gone. Who would care for him now, a blind man? Not only that, but his sister's marriage brought a fresh reminder of his own heartbreak over his fiance's refusal to "go through life with a blind man". 

          It was in the midst of this circumstance and intense sadness that the Lord gave him this hymn – written, he says, in just 5 minutes! You can almost feel his pain at his human loss, but you can also sense his hope as he realizes that rest for his weary soul would only come from his Lord and that love would never let him go. 

          Are you discouraged and looking for such a love?  God loves you and will not leave you alone if you place your trust in Him.  Meditate on the truth of this hymn this week and be thankful for God's love that never lets us go.

1.  O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

    2.  O light that foll'west all my way,

I yield my flick'ring torch to thee;

My heart restores its borrowed ray,

That in thy sunshine's blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

    3.  O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

    4.  O Cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from thee;

I lay in dust life's glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be.

You can listen to this hymn here.   LISTEN