Mercy Came Running

As many of you who've read this blog since February have seen, music plays such an integral part of my life and nothing blesses me as much as one of those songs where I can almost hear God's voice whispering in my ears.

I was planning on surprising my wife this afternoon with a spotless bedroom, complete with laundry folded AND put away as well as the bed being made and jackets hung up. I knew she'd been working a lot lately and besides wanting to give her a nice retreat to come home to, I was tired of stepping over towels & t-shirts.

Anyway, a song came on my iPod called "Mercy Came Running" from the trio Phillips, Craig & Dean. I'd heard this song one or two times before and had always enjoyed it. But you know how it is when a song or story or verse takes on a whole new meaning? Like a light has just been turned on in a dark room? When everything is just right?

Well, this afternoon, everything was just right.

The melody, the lyrics, the word picture I saw in my head made me stop, meditate and just worship God right there.

Just imagine these images...literally taking place. This song takes on a whole new life and gives me a whole new sense of praise to our God for loving me that much...

"Once there was a holy place, evidence of God's embrace
And I can almost see Mercy's face pressed against the veil
Looking down with longing eyes, Mercy must have realized
That once His blood was sacrificed freedom would prevail

And as the sky grew dark
And the earth began to shake
With justice no longer in the way

Chorus:
Mercy came running like a prisoner set free
Past all my failures to the point of my need
When the sin that I carried was all I could see
And when I could not reach mercy
Mercy came running to me

Once there was a broken heart, way too human from the start
And all the years left it torn apart, hopeless and afraid
Walls I never meant to build left this prisoner unfulfilled
Freedom called but even still it seemed so far away

I was bound by the chains
From the wages of my sin
Just when I felt like giving in...

Mercy came running, like a prisoner set free
Past all my failures to the point of my need
When the sin I carried was all I could see
And when I could not reach mercy,
Mercy came running to me.

Sometimes I still feel so far
So far from where I really should be
He gently calls to my heart
Just to remind me

Mercy came running
Like a prisioner set free
Past all my failures to the point of my need
when the sin I carried was all I could see
And when I could not reach mercy...

Mercy came running to me."

Can you just see that? God looking down upon the sorry state of man...of me and of you...realizing that nothing we could ever do on our own would save us and thusly, He sent His one & only Son to pay that debt for our sins. He had such a passion for us that He came to die for each of us. He came running as fast as He could to save us and wrap His arms of Mercy around us.

The Song of Solomon says it so vividly!! Even though this is the woman speaking of the arrival of her love, read how she tells of his sheer determination to reach her:

Song of Songs 2:8-10
"Listen! My love is approaching. Look! Here he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. My love is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, he is standing behind our wall, gazing through the windows. peering through the lattice. My love calls to me."

This man had such a passion for his love, nothing would stand in his way of coming to be with her. You can almost see this in your mind...

A winded, exhausted yet determined man, standing just beyond the window, eagerly awaiting her arrival as his anticipation builds fiercely within...

Now imagine God Almighty doing the very same for you.

Imagine He loved each of us that much that He did come after us with such a passion, as a Father would run after His children, as the groom would run after his bride...

With all the junk and sin in my life, with every bad thing I've ever done, with anything that I've allowed to distract me from His call upon my life...even through all of that...

as ugly and so undeserving as I am...

Mercy came running to me.

Wow.

Praise the Lord for His mercy and His love for us all.