O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
 
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
 
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

I really can’t pick favorites when it comes to songs about Christ and His work, but this song has always been one that I have loved. It challenges me to let go of all the earthly treasures and joys and focus on Christ, because through Him the good things are even better. I love verse three:

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;

He is our Joy, He seeks us in our deepest pain and when we are His, we cannot close our hearts to Him, He dwells within us, He has experienced the most profound pain any being can experience, how much smaller our pain is in comparison to His, when His Father forsook on His only Son on the cross.

I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

Have you ever traced a rainbow? I remember as a child, when we would be driving in the car and see a rainbow, I would keep my eyes on it as long as I possibly could, I would see the variances in the color saturation as the angle of light changed through the precipitation, I remember counting all seven common color “bands” (yes, I have studied color and know that the rainbow is a spectrum and there are really no “bands”), quoting them in my head over and over “red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.” A rainbow usually signifies the end of a storm, the breaking of the cloud cover, and the air is always cleanest after a good rainstorm… the promise of the rainbow is that redemption is ours, our morning will be clear and tear-free, for only in Our Redeemer can we find true comfort. Our Joy is complete when we rest in Him.