In the Depths -- Deep Love

      I can remember the first time I heard the beautiful song "O, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus." It was during a Vacation Bible School I was helping with not that many years ago. The minor chords stirred my heart, even though my experience of that Love was not yet as deep as the music suggests to me now. My faith was immature, even though I was advanced in years. I was well aware of my sin, yet the dire suffering of Jesus had not become a reality in my heart, even though I knew the facts well enough. Like everyone else, I had watched Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" with tears, sometimes even closing my eyes when it became too realistic, yet His pain was still unimaginable.

      As slowly as a long-awaited dawn, though -- through a Bible study, a Sunday School lesson, a sermon, or even an image -- the truth of this song's words sank into my heart. When I was shown the picture below, I had to have a copy for myself. It's still by my bedside, a constant reminder of just how low the King of the Universe, the Creator of all life, the one and only Jehovah God stooped to restore me to a right relationship with Himself. Do you realize how many lesser gods are worshiped every day -- wealth, fame, "fun," material possessions, power, not to mention countless human beings? I have certainly put all of those things before God!

(Image: "The Rescue" by Nathan Greene)

      When I began to have severe pain from a then unknown cause, I felt in the depths of despair. All I could do was tell Jesus how sorry I was for the pain I had caused Him to suffer, knowing that mine was a dim shadow of His. But then I began to think about what He gave up for me, even before the cross, when the God of the Universe squeezed into a frail human body that would suffer growing pains, skinned knees, cuts and bruises, not to mention a heart broken over and over again by rejection from the people He came to save. And He left His true home in Paradise for this!

      Then, "Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me" my heart began to overflow with praise.

      *Please read Psalm 130, and then enjoy the beautiful images accompanying Selah's song below.

 O, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus by Selah