One of the my favorite things about coming down to Oklahoma to stay with my family is playing music with my brother. Today, we jammed out with traditional Easter songs from the Baptist Hymnal. We have the version published by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1975.
I came across a little hymn, number 171, that I don't ever remember singing in church. The words have such a beautiful meaning, which seems to have gotten lost over time.
Maybe we should focus less on exclusivity and more on the broadness and wideness of God's mercy:
"There's a Wideness in God's Mercy"
There's a wideness in God's mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner,
And more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Savior;
There is healing in His blood.
But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
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