Jesuni Obe Adare

Jesus, your love stands unshaken, always,
your love, it is like a great mountain
I cannot grasp it, I cannot fathom it,
why do you love me this much?

Can a mother forget
her own nursing child,
her own child at the breast?
Even if she should, you never,
you never forget me, your child

Jesus, your love stands unshaken, always…

The birds that fly in the sky
never gather grain into barns,
yet my Father always keeps them
and more than all of them, he guards my life
my life is kept safe in his hand

This is a hymn of wonder at the steadfast love of God, and it leans on two of the tenderest promises in the Bible. It opens by declaring that love unshakable and immense, “your love stands unshaken, always, it is like a great mountain,” and then confesses the amazement every believer feels before grace, “I cannot grasp it, I cannot fathom it, why do you love me this much?” The love is simply too large to explain.

The second verse takes up the beautiful image from the prophet Isaiah, where God says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? Though she may forget, I will not forget you.” The hymn puts it almost word for word, “can a mother forget her own nursing child? Even if she should, you never forget me, your child.” Set against the most reliable human love there is, a mother’s, God’s love is shown to be more faithful still.

The final verse turns to Jesus’ own words about the birds of the air, that they do not store up grain in barns, “yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” The singer takes comfort in it and applies it to himself, “more than all of them, he guards my life; my life is kept safe in his hand.” What the listener is left with is deep security, the assurance that a love greater than a mountain, more faithful than a mother’s, and more attentive than the care that keeps the birds alive, is holding one small human life safe in the hand of God.