“He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all”
I sat down on my bed tonight to pray…i haven’t finished yet. I was overwhelmed with the need to write…so here we go…
This song has been on my heart all week. I discovered it last year and was amazed by it, but slowly with school and life i let go of it and forgot about it. I rediscovered it this week as I was looking for more songs to run to….and i came across the video on youtube about the story of this song….. John Mark Mcmillian wrote it the night he found out he had lost his best friend in a tragic car accident. He was so angry and confused and was suffering so much…asking God why this happened and he wrote this song realizing that no matter how messed up he felt right now… God loved him no less…..His love is always infinite…. and he found peace in that.
And i was sitting here tonight praying and asking God for forgiveness for my pride, my selfishness, my inabilities to resist temptation and this chorus seemed to leap right into my soul. And for the first time I felt more than a superficial meaning of this song…. I felt the real, raw meaning of this song first hand. Such a simple chorus, yet so powerful…..it becomes not just another chorus in another song, but a prayer of great truth. I felt my afflicitions “eclipsed with glory” as I realized how “great His affections are for me”. This song is like Jesus crying out to the repentant sinner, “I hear you, I’ve been tempted, and I know it’s not easy… but please, for now, just look at my hands….scarred by love….feel the immense depth of my love for you…. on the cross I knew all your sins….I knew the many times you would deny me….I knew the many times you would give evil a second look…..yet I still chose to die for you. You can’t fully imagine the entirety of my love for you on this earth…but I need you to trust me when I say that I will never love you less….my love for you is constant and it is all you need to find peace and joy in this world. There is no sin that is unforgivable…the cross took care of them all…just come to me and you will find rest…you will find love.”
Oh, how He loves us……
“We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…
He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us.”