The Love of God, by Frederick M. Lehman (1917)

The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell;

It goes beyond the highest star,

And reaches to the lowest hell;

 

The guilty pair, bowed down with care,

God gave His Son to win;

His erring child He reconciled,

And pardoned from his sin

 

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,

Tho’ stretched from sky to sky.

 

Some recent links to help you take heart in romance:

1. After years of waiting for God to bring the right man her way, Charity Singleton becomes Charity Craig in a surprise wedding, with she and her love lingering long on the vow, “in sickness and in health.”

2. In a culture that seems obsessed with young love, I appreciate how Kelli Trujillo sings the praises old love: “It’s the ‘long-loved loves,’ to borrow a phrase from Madeleine L’Engle, that I am being taught by real life to admire. Like wine growing richer and fuller with age, this is where the true, hidden beauty can be found.”

3. Check out this lovely bouquet of marriage advice from elderly couples that Christie Elkins (who will be guest posting in our Take Heart series this week!) found as she sorted through a closet recently.

4. I was so moved by Alia Joy’s painful journey of a love almost lost, all the brokenness and failure coming around to redemption and faithfulness. Just soak in these poetic lines: “I am no longer fresh-faced, but these eyes can see. The days of labor and hard work drift off your skin and smell like faithfulness. We have known thorns but still plant and reap. There’s beauty here. We no longer feel our rings, but they have encircled our family.”

Thanks for visiting Message in a Mason Jar where we’re finding the loveliest things in the most ordinary containers. To get posts delivered to your email box or blog reader, enter your email address on the homepage sidebar or enter http://messageinamasonjar.com/feed/ in your reader.

This post is part of our Take Heart series. This week we’ve been talking about taking heart in the struggles of singleness, marriage, loss and abandonment.

P.S. There’s still time to enter our Take Heart necklace giveaway!