A LOVE FOR THE AGES
George Matheson was one of Scotland’s great preachers. Born in 1842, he served for over 40 years as a pastor and author of numerous hymns still sung in the church. What many people do not know is that George Matheson was blind from the time he was 20 years old. One of my favorite hymns that he wrote is “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.” It never fails to move me, especially knowing the story behind it. As the story goes, Matheson wrote the hymn after his fiancé rejected him when she learned of his blindness. Matheson never married and felt the sorrow of that loss all of his life. Yet, in its wake it caused him to write of a far greater love that sustained him in that sad moment and in many more throughout his life. Among the lines of that hymn are these:
O Love that will 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.
God’s love can swallow up all sorrows. As we enter a month in which we celebrate love (Valentine’s Day), let us remember Jesus words: “Greater love has no man but that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). We who obey him and follow him are his friends for life and nothing in all of creation will ever separate us from that love (Rom 8:38,39). It Wilt Never Let Us Go!
Pastor Mike
