Deep and Wide

“Deep and wide, Deep and wide, there’s a fountain flowing deep and wide”

It is impossible to read those words without hearing the tune to the Sunday School song in your head. If you want to sing it, go ahead! The second verse switches to “wide and deep.” A third verses is sung “mmm and mmm” but I have never understood why.

The song reminds me of Paul’s prayer for the saints at Ephesus in Ephesians 3:17b-19 (CSB) “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Paul prayed for the saints’ spiritual stability, understanding of God’s love, and experience of being filled with God’s presence and power. If these qualities could be grasped by the saints at Ephesus, they can be grasped by us! As saints ourselves and with all the saints we can live life based on love, appreciate God’s love, and demonstrate God’s power.

Paul includes the phrase “with all the saints.” The saints I know live in the 21st century. Most of the saints I know live in Wisconsin and Minnesota. I know other saints who live in North America and around the world.

This week I experienced the loss of a loved one and the “deep and wide” love of God expressed from all the saints. As a believer this love is yours too! As a saint, with all the saints, you have a family of brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers in Christ who are ready to extend God’s deep and wide love to you in your times of loss and need as well.

In a day of “social distancing” we are not alone. We are neck deep in the love of God and surrounded by “all the saints.” There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.