“Endless is Your Love” by Tom Kendzia
You know my heart
You know my mind
You know my words long before I speak them.
There is no place that I can hide
Endless is your love for us
How vast the sums of all your deeds.
Endless is your love for us
Surely there’s a place, even you don’t know
If I find there, if I fly there
Can I hide from you?
You know my heart
You know my mind
You know my words
long before I speak them
There is no place
Where I can hide
Endless is your love for us
How vast the sums of all your deeds
Endless is your love for us
Wonderful your works
Countless as the sands
Earth and heaven know your beauty
fashioned by your hand
You know my heart
You know my mind
You know my words
Long before I speak them
There is no place that I can hide
Endless is your love for us
How vast the sums of all your deeds
Endless is your love for us
Dear God, we sang this song in church Sunday, and I really liked it. I found that it is a relatively new hymn, copyrighted only 20 years ago in 2006. What caught my eye was the first verse after the opening chorus: “Surely there is a place even you don’t know. If I climb there, if I fly there, can I hide from you?” Of course this is a play on Psalm 139 about hiding from you. But the psalmist says, “Where can I go?” The slight twist on this that Mr. Kendzia is playing with is, “There has to be a place, and I’ll find it!”
Ironically, you do allow us to run. You can see us. You can still know us. But you allow us to turn away. My wife has a friend whose father absolutely rejected you in a hostile way. He wouldn’t allow his daughter to talk to him about you. If she wanted a relationship with him she had to not reference you. I suppose that level of blocking helped him to feel unseen by you. And now that he has died, it is one of her great sorrows. That he didn’t know you. Where is he now? Eternally perishing? Is his soul just dead? Was there some loophole in your grace that he found and he is with you on the other side?
Father, all parents have a choice on how much freedom to give their children, whether they are young or adults. You give us a lot of freedom, and yet it is so hard for us to follow your example. Obviously, you don’t expect us to give them freedom as young children, but when they are grown they have a free will that we shouldn’t control. And that you don’t control. So when we pray for our children, that they be drawn to you and healed from their pain, how do you go about answering those prayers? I don’t know. All I know is all I can control is myself, and while there are times I want to run and hide, I know I need you and I’m only hurting myself (and you, I suppose) with this my foolishness. So I come to you this morning. Seen. Known. Loved. I hope my children can know that, while I cannot see them or even really know them at any given moment, they are at least loved.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Emails to God 