Love that Will Not Let Us Go

Today’s message was written by, Rev. Roger Kunkel, the founder of Dial Hope.

Some years ago, a young man named George Matheson entered Glasgow University. He had a keen mind. His hopes were high. Soon he and his fiancée would be married. He dreamed of a bright future. But then the bottom dropped out. He lost his eyesight. Because of his misfortune, Matheson was rejected by his fiancee, who said she couldn’t marry a man who was blind, and she left him. His world crumbled at his feet. Devastated, afraid, and worried, he turned to God as never before, and God was there!

Struck blind, hurt, and rejected, George Matheson reached out in the darkness and found that God’s unconditional love was there. And he wrote what has become one of our most beloved hymns, a hymn sung by Christians everywhere that says it all, a hymn of praise to God:

“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.” (1882)

Let us pray: Loving God, who loves each of us as a parent loves a child, we pause to remember your amazing grace. You are our refuge and strength and are present with us, both in good and in difficult times. Because you love us and always are with us, in gratitude, we rededicate ourselves to following Jesus’ commandment to love you with heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves. Through the grace of Jesus. Amen.