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Have you ever felt like you were sinking? Once when I was just learning to swim, my younger sister - who was also not a great swimmer - jumped into the pool and grabbed me around the neck. I couldn't touch the bottom and I struggled to drag her with me to the side of the pool so I could grab on to the edge and bring us both to safety. It was probably only a split second that happened more than 25 years ago, but I still remember that frantic moment when I felt like I was literally sinking in the water with my sister clinging to me.
This week's hymn is mysterious. The melody is haunting. We sang this on Sunday night at a Lenten service and it felt like a wail that comes straight from the heart of one who knows they were drowning in their sins. They know that they would not have made it to safety if Christ had not laid aside his crown to rescue them from certain death.
If you have been saved by Jesus Christ, take a moment to consider how wondrous - almost unbelievable it is that God himself would sink right down with us in order to save us from our sins. Philippians 2:5-8 says this about Jesus:
...being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather he made himself nothing by taking the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!
If you are still sinking down in your sins, struggling to swim to the edge - you cannot make it to safety on your own. You need a Savior to rescue you. Today might be the day that Jesus Christ is calling you to look up and see salvation he has for you. He has died for your sins. He has such great love for you.
Nothing, not even death can separate us from God's wondrous love. And that love should cause us to offer up a song of praise to the only one who can save us.
What wondrous love is this O my soul, O my soul
What wondrous love is this, O my soul
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul.
When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down
When i was sinking down, sinking down
When I was sinking down beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.
To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing
To God and to the Lamb I will sing
To God and to the Lamb who is the Great I AM
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing
While millions join the theme, I will sing.
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on
And when from death I'm free I'll sing His love for me