Common Ground Song 131 ‘Through the love of God our Saviour’
Words: © M Peters / Music: Welsh traditional
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQSNZ92NV7o
Featured image: Mary and Martha. Stained glass window, Holy Cross church, Burley (Rutland). Image © Julian P Guffogg cc-by-sa-2.0

As I mentioned in last Saturday’s post, I am in the early stages of grieving for my wife. The stages of grief are well known, though everyone’s circumstances and personality are different, making every experience of bereavement unique. The shock is beginning to work off, and perhaps I am now in a fortunately mild state of ‘denial’. I know she is dead. But many times a day I see or hear something and think “I must tell Linda that”. Or I cook myself a meal and absent-mindedly make enough for two people.

This hymn, set to the lovely Welsh folk tune ‘Ar hyd y nos’, is all about our faith in Jesus and his love for us. Most of the words are positive, and at first can sound insensitive to one who is grieving. The repeated refrains of ‘All will be well’ and ‘All, all is well’ are difficult to sing through the emotions of loss. ‘We expect a bright tomorrow’? ‘Not possible without her!’ might be my first response.

But in the remaining words of the hymn is great hope. It acknowledges the difficulties of life (‘Though we pass through tribulation’), and it is even in that tribulation (trial) that we can find hope. Not in ourselves, but in the promises of Jesus, and ultimately in his Resurrection. I am yet to experience the stage of anger that some people feel in grief, because I do not blame Jesus for Linda’s death. I get it that some people do. Even his close friends Martha and Mary both shouted or whispered at him in their grief ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died!’ But what was Jesus’ response? ‘ Your brother will rise again… The one who believes in me will live, even though they die’ (John 11:23,25). It is that faith in resurrection that will get me through this.

Jesus brought us together at the right time. He led us from one place to another, at the right time. He has provided for us in money and jobs, friends and family, always at the right time. Who am I to doubt that his calling Linda home to his Kingdom was not ‘at the right time’? There are many promises wrapped up in the three verses of this hymn: ‘The blood that healed us / the grace that sealed us / the hand to shield us’. ‘Ours is such a full salvation’. And so on. It is because of these that ‘Faith can sing through days of sorrow’.

The hymn ends with the choice that faces us all. ‘Or in living or in dying, all must be well’. OR as St Paul puts it, ‘To live is Christ, to die is gain’. Linda has lived well, and now has gained eternal life.