May Love Alone for Wrong Atone

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. —1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)

Our church sings the Canadian national anthem on two occasions every year. The first is on the closest Sunday to Canada Day; the second the closest Sunday to Remembrance Day. Like most Canadian children, I have sung the anthem so many times that I could probably sing it in my sleep. So I was a little unnerved one Sunday several years ago when our worship leader didn’t go into the next worship song but began to play the anthem for a second time.

Having been in the Pentecostal church for some time, I was used to singing the same song over at least 2 times on a good day, so when it looked like we were going to sing the anthem over again, I wasn’t really that surprised.

To my amazement we began to sing a second verse of the anthem, one I have since learned was written my Albert Durrant Watson in 1917. His version is called “Lord of the Lands” written to the same tune as “O Canada”.

If you have a chance, look up his lyrics. They really are beautiful and moving, including one of my favourite lines: “May love alone for wrong atone.”

Let me repeat that line again …”May LOVE alone for wrong atone.”

My thoughts, after singing this for the first time, were feral—I thought of all the war and controversies we read about in our national newspapers. Can you imagine the change that could happen if love was the guiding theme in every leader’s heart?

My mom always told me that if I want to complain about something I had better be ready with a solution to the problem—and be willing to do something about it. I can’t see myself going to the next G8 summit so I suppose that I need to start living that love here.

We are now in the season of love. In a few days we will celebrate the greatest gift of love ever given to the world: Jesus. It is the one month a year we come closest to “may love alone for wrong atone”. It is also a month of extreme contradictions.

On one hand our hearts are full of love as we find that perfect gift for our family. In the next breath, we fill our heart with anger and frustration as we stand behind some person in the check out line who has an item with no price tag on it. We look forward to having our family home but when they get there we suddenly realize why we enjoy it so much when they leave!

We live “may love alone for wrong atone” by making a decision. We need to decide that nothing will loom larger in our lives than Jesus’ love. All we have to do is look to the nativity scene in our homes to be reminded of the greatest love of all.

Make the commitment with me to love during this month and then go a step further and make it your New Year’s resolution. That one decision has the potential to change the world.

Jeanetta van Leeuwen is a member of WSPC who lives in Bracebridge. She loves to scrapbook, journal, and enjoy life with her husband and three children.