Upon rising, I looked up who wrote this familiar song in 1917 and read about Frederick Martin Lehman who was a California Christian businessman but had lost everything. He was forced to make a living by working in a packing plant putting oranges and lemons into wooden crates; but while he worked God used this environment for him to write songs. One Sunday he was so touched by the Pastor’s sermon that he could hardly sleep that night. The next day, words came to him throughout the day as he worked; he later rushed home to write them down and went to the piano to compose the melody to The Love of God. He wrote 2 stanzas but 3 were necessary for a song to be considered complete. There were no words that came to him but he remembered a card he had received and noted that at the bottom it said that the words were written on the wall of a prison cell 200 years ago by a prisoner so he could be reminded of God’s love. It was not known what the prisoner had done but the words were left behind when he died and written down before the cell walls were painted.
Lehman found that the words fit perfectly for the 3rd verse of his song, and they still ring just as true today. “Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade; to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.”
We talk and sing about God’s love, but has His love penetrated our hearts that no matter what is happening in our lives, His love remains measureless and strong. His love reaches down to us no matter if we are the most wretched sinner for His love endures forever.
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