“If We Only Knew…”

I am sharing this video because this song is so powerful and so true! As one who prays the Divine Mercy chaplet often, this song resonates with me in a very profound way.

Divine Mercy is what God offers us every day of our lives. But we don’t all know this is the case. Hence the title of my blog entry today and the title of this amazing song. If you go to the YouTube site, you can find all the lyrics, but I am going to focus on these:

If we only knew

How deep the ocean of your love

How powerful every drop of blood

How much it cost to rescue us

If we only knew

How far the East is from the West

How we are clothed in righteousness

How strong the hands that conquered death

If we only knew

The second half of the refrain begins with an Old Testament excerpt from Psalm 103, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” In poetic terms, that is extremely far. It’s so far we can’t even see it or comprehend. That’s how far our sins are from where we are once we seek forgiveness and God forgives. Our sin has been erased, basically. We can’t ever catch up with our forgiven sin, as if we’d ever want to, once the Lord has granted us forgiveness. And He is so ready to do so, if we just ask in genuine sorrow and humility, and trust.

Then we hear/read “we are clothed in righteousness.” These words are derived from another Old Testament book, this time it’s Isaiah, chapter 61. “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness…” To be righteous is just about one of the best adjectives that can be used to describe a human being. To be righteous is to be above reproach.

The final statement in the above refrain marvels at the strong hands of the Lord who conquered death. This is evocative of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 15. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And again, the songwriter/singer laments, “If we only knew.” If we only knew how much we are loved, how great is the mercy of God, how He longs to forgive us and is ready to take us back. Take us back? Yes, because it is we who wander away or turn our backs on God. Or it is we, His beloved children, who never knew or understood that God held us in His hands and only wanted to keep us close to Him to share in His glory and to know His love. Too many times we walk off very determined and so sure of ourselves, but have no idea what we’re leaving behind. The God who loves us stands there empty handed as we move off in our own will and our own distorted views of why we’re here, or with no real knowledge of why we’re here or who He is.

If we only knew. We can never really understand how much God loves us or how deep His ocean of mercy is, at least not this side of Heaven. But we can trust that it is enough, and more than enough, to save us. It is enough, and more than enough, to bring us home. Home where our Father lives in eternal glory and where He longs to have us with Him.

When Jesus told two nuns in two different countries in two different centuries, that all we have to do is trust Him and believe in His merciful love, it was to comfort us and to tell us again and again, (as if His death and resurrection, His ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit were not enough proof), how much He loves us and wants us in Heaven with the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

One religious sister was in France and gave us, at Jesus’ command, the Sacred Heart of Jesus to contemplate and accept. The other was in Poland and gave us, at Jesus’ command, the Divine Mercy for the same reasons. God is merciful and loves us. That’s the bottom line. If we only knew.