HIS Great Love

Because I have attended church since infancy, there are many tunes and lyrics of hymns that bounce around the empty space between my ears. Some of these hymns describe the greatness of our God in ways that cause us to pause, reflect, and stand in awe of His majesty. Others remind us of how much He loves us, and they take us in poetic brilliance to the cross of Christ, while some songs of the faith assure us that God’s Son continues to love us, and “like a Shepherd, Jesus will guard His children.”

Occasionally, there are some words from the hymnal that will shock me, or at least come very close to shocking me. The song, “It’s Just Like His Great Love,” though rarely heard today, was often sung in our church services during my childhood and teen years.

The third verse contains the words that would stand out, and even to this day often echo in my brain. “When sorrow’s clouds o’er take me, and break upon my head, when life seems worse than useless, and I were better dead;" What was it in the life of Edna Worrell that brought her to write these lyrics? What is it about them that makes them so captivating to the mind after all these years? I don’t believe she could have written these words without having experienced some immense mental anguish caused by the cares of this life. I also wonder if completely well-adjusted people, who have no inclination to depression or despair, simply glance over these words, or do they think, “well, what was wrong with her?”

It’s a great tragedy to me that there is no historical background written about this hymn, nor do we know much about Edna Worrell’s life. We do know that she was a prolific writer, lived in Philadelphia, and was thought to have been a great, great-grandniece of Betsy Ross.

Verse 2 relates the cause of the anxiety she mentions in verse 3. “Sometimes the clouds of trouble, bedim the sky above, I cannot see my Savior’s face. I doubt His wondrous love.” The end of the third verse gives a solution to the despair of the first half of that verse. “I take my grief to Jesus,” and the triumphant answer of the refrain is, “It’s just like Jesus to roll the clouds away ... It’s just like His great love.”

I don’t know how low despair has taken you, or if you ever considered life to be “worse than useless.” I do know that there is a great God with a great love for you, and if you have trusted Him to save you from your sins, according to Romans 8, nothing can separate you from the love of God. Take time to read the passage for yourself. Notice in Romans 8:32 that if God did not spare His son, then He won’t forsake you now. Also, observe the list of the things of this life, of the spiritual powers, and of the dimensions of time and space that cannot separate you from His love. From that viewpoint, you can go from feeling “better dead” to realizing that “we are more than conquerors THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US!”
 
It’s Just Like His Great Love
Edna R. Worrell, 1903
 
A friend I have called Jesus, Whose love is strong and true,
And never fails howe’er ’tis tried, no matter what I do;
I sinned against this love of His, but when I knelt to pray,
Confessing all my guilt to Him, the sin-clouds rolled away.

Refrain:
It’s just like Jesus to roll the clouds away,
It’s just like Jesus to keep me day by day,
It’s just like Jesus all along the way,
It’s just like His great love.
 
Sometimes when clouds of trouble bedim the sky above,
I cannot see my Savior’s face, and doubt His wondrous love;
But He, from heaven’s mercy seat, beholding my despair,
In pity bursts the clouds between, and shows me He is there.
 
When sorrow’s clouds o’ertake me, and break upon my head,
When life seems worse than useless, and I were better dead;
I take my grief to Jesus then, nor do I go in vain,
For heav’nly hope He gives that cheers like sunshine after rain.
 
Oh, I could sing forever of Jesus’ love divine,
Of all His care and tenderness for this poor life of mine;
His love is in and over all, and wind and waves obey,
When Jesus whispers, “Peace, be still!” and rolls the clouds away.