Wednesday, March 18 There’s a Wildness in God’s Mercy
Scripture:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” — Isaiah 55:8
Hymn Focus:
There’s a Wildness in God’s Mercy
“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea.”
“There is grace enough for thousands of new worlds as great as this.”
Lent is often imagined as a narrow path—marked by restraint, repentance, and careful self-examination. The hymn There’s a Wildness in God’s Mercy surprises us with a different vision: God’s mercy is not tight-fisted or easily exhausted. It is wide, deep, and freely given.
As Lent brings our shortcomings into clearer focus, we may be tempted to believe that grace must be rationed—that forgiveness has limits, especially when we return to the same failures again and again. This hymn gently but firmly corrects that fear. God’s mercy is broader than our imagination and more generous than our judgment.
The hymn names the contrast between human love and divine love. We often forgive cautiously, measuring who deserves mercy and how much. God’s mercy, by contrast, overflows boundaries. Lent teaches us that repentance is not about convincing God to love us, but about trusting that God already does.
As we journey toward the cross, we see this “wild” mercy embodied in Christ. Jesus eats with sinners, touches the unclean, forgives the unforgivable, and gives himself fully in love. The wideness of God’s mercy stretches all the way to Calvary—and beyond, into resurrection life.
Lent invites us not only to receive this mercy, but to reflect it. As we are forgiven generously, we are called to forgive generously. God’s mercy reshapes not only our hearts, but our relationships and our world.
Prayer
Merciful God,
When we imagine your grace as small or scarce,
open our eyes to its wideness.
In this Lenten season,
teach us to trust your mercy more deeply
and to extend it more freely.
Shape our repentance with hope,
and our obedience with gratitude,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.