Sorrow and Love

In his well known hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” Isaac Watts makes use of several interesting paradoxes. The first verse speaks of “the wondrous cross.” How can a cross – an implement of tortuous capital punishment – be wonderful? Crosses were designed to be fearsome and terrible, but for the believer, the wonderful nature of the cross lies in that it was the vehicle by which our Savior gave His life for us. Also in the first verse, the author aspires to “pour contempt on all [his] pride.” This interesting turn of phrase includes the thought of holding in low regard the tendency we all have to hold ourselves in higher regard than we ought. The paradox that recently caught my attention the most, however, is in the third verse: “See, from His head, His hands, His feet / Sorrow and love flow mingled down.” What an interesting juxtaposition of emotions – sorrow and love – is found here.

I’m sure that we can look back on our experiences and remember occasions when we’ve felt the conflicting emotions of pain and love at the same time. One such event that stands out in my memory took place a couple of years ago while vacationing with the family in Georgia. I had taken the children to a local playground for the afternoon and the three oldest boys quickly found a large mound of earth they quickly deduced to be a massive fire ant hill. Being that sanctification is a work in progress, they invited their innocent and naïve sister to come over and “kick this dirt hill.” She did, and I’m sure you can imagine what happened next. She was immediately swarmed by hundreds of fire ants who, presumably, were not too pleased about this sudden invasion.

Rachel was not too pleased either, when she found herself covered with hundreds of angry fire ants. She called out to me and when I arrived on the scene, I found her standing in the fire ant bed, paralyzed with fear. I quickly picked her up and placed her in safer territory, and then began the process of removing her socks and shoes and brushing away the fire ants. Miraculously, she wasn’t bitten a single time despite being covered with hundreds of fire ants. Yours truly, however, sustained dozens of bites on his fingers, hands, and arms. Sorrow and Love.

It was love for my daughter that made me glad to unhesitatingly place myself in harm’s way so that she could be rescued. And even though her rescue was successfully secured, it was rather painful for me. This incident, I believe, is a microcosm of the sorrow and love Jesus experienced when He secured our redemption. Obviously, He has so much more love than I and, clearly, His pain was much greater than anything I’ve experienced. But that notwithstanding, it was His love for each of us that made Him glad to endure the death on a cross in order to rescue us.

A fitting response to this expression of love through sorrow is given in the fourth verse of Watts’ hymn: “Love so amazing, so divine / Demands my soul, my life, my all.” I trust that we’ll each find an attitude of gratefulness for Jesus refreshed in our spirits, and a desire to commit all to Him renewed in our lives.