[God’s love] is greater than anything human. Our only response is to give back to God the life we owe Him anyway. Our life, borrowed from Him, is like a little stream feeding into the immensely greater ocean of His life and love.

As a young man, Scotsman George Matheson (1842–1906) exhibited a quick mind and a fervent devotion to the Lord. He began to train for the ministry, but his already poor eyesight had begun to fail completely. He raced through studies at the University of Glasgow and graduated at the age of 19, but was fully blind by the following year. His sister learned Greek and Hebrew alongside him to help him complete his degree. Shortly after this, George began pastoral ministry as an assistant, then became pastor in the Scottish village of Inellan in 1868.

According to many sources, George was engaged to be married, but his fiancée, upon learning of his blindness, broke off the engagement. George remained a bachelor for the rest of his life.

In 1882, George’s sister got married. Alone in his home on the night of the wedding, George began to reflect on the nature of true love. God’s love, he realized, was one which would pursue him and would never let him go. In his written account of that evening, he cryptically refers to something which had happened to him and was weighing on his mind. In the middle of his grief, George turned his mental agony into worship. In only about five minutes’ time, he wrote a four-stanza poem exploring four different images for God’s unfailing love.

This love, Matheson explains, is greater than anything human. Our only response is to give back to God the life we own Him anyway. Our life, borrowed from Him, is like a little stream feeding into the immensely greater ocean of His life and love.

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