This morning I recalled a line from a hymn (one I've tried to re-work for some time now), "There's a wideness in God's mercy/like the wideness of the sea." I love that. It stirs my imagination. For me, it takes imagination to engage with how vast are the seas. Where are their beginnings? Their ends? We cannot see one side of the ocean while standing on the other.
That, too, stirred my imagination for the wideness of God's mercy. If only my mercy were as wide.
A Wideness in Your Mercy
Abbye West Pates
11.14.19
a wideness in your mercy
as far as east to west
a wideness in your Goodness
that plans for all the Best
where is your explanation
for why things all went wrong
where is your Grand Solution
or have we gone too far
a wideness in your mercy
that reaches everyone
does it stretch so far to cover
even presidents and sons
where is the happy ending
it's impossible to see
can faith and imagination
save us from the sea
a wideness in your mercy
as far as east from west
spread wide that same good mercy
throughout my own stone chest
a wideness in your mercy
as far as east from west
a wideness in your Goodness
that plans for all the Best
