Love That Holds When Hands Let Go

George Matheson was going blind. The Scottish minister had watched the world slowly dissolve into darkness throughout his young adulthood, and according to the story passed down through generations, his fiancée returned his ring — she could not face life with a blind husband.

Matheson pressed on. He memorized his sermons, preached with fire, and became one of Scotland's most beloved pastors. But on the evening of June 6, 1882, something broke open inside him. His sister was getting married that night. The manse was empty. And in the solitude, all the grief he had carried — the lost love, the stolen sight, the loneliness — surfaced at once.

In five minutes, he wrote one of the most beloved hymns in the English language: "O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go."

"I rest my weary soul in Thee," he wrote. "I give Thee back the life I owe, that in Thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be."

Matheson discovered something that evening that every believer eventually learns: human love, however beautiful, can walk away. But the love of the Almighty holds on. It does not flinch at our darkness. It does not return the ring.

Whatever you have lost — a marriage, a friendship, your health, your confidence — there is a Love that will not let you go. And that Love has a name. His name is Jesus.