Deep and wide, deep and wide,
there’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.
Deep and wide, deep and wide,
there’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.

I sang this chorus with my kindergarten Sunday school friends as we sat on little red chairs in the basement of the Methodist church. Mrs. B pounded on the piano with exuberance and we did the hand motions to “deep” and “wide”. The boys in the back row made sure their “wide” motions were wide enough to smack each other. It got really exciting when the words were replaced with “mmm”.

“Mmm and mmm, mmm and mmm, there’s a mmm flowing mmm and mmm.”
It was hilarious when someone forgot to say “mmm” and blurted out “deep” instead.

I couldn’t figure out what M&Ms had to do with Jesus.

As a six year old, I had no idea what this little chorus was about. Mrs. B probably explained that it was a picture of God’s love, unmeasurable and bubbling up eternally. I was probably giggling and whispering with Sharon and Carol and didn’t hear her. Fifty plus years later, I’m still trying to understand how long, how wide, how deep and how high God’s love really is — and to experience it for myself. How can we wrap our minds around something that is so great that we will never see the end of it or fully know it?

Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea. –Job 11:7-9

One of my favorite scenes in the gospels is in Luke 5, when Jesus asked to borrow Peter’s boat so He could sit in it and preach to the crowd. When the sermon was over, Jesus told Peter, “Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.” (Luke 5:4) Peter explained that they had been fishing all night and had come up empty.

Plus, everybody knows fish don’t bite in the middle of the day.
Plus, they had just cleaned all the nets.
Plus, professional fishermen didn’t need advise from a carpenter/preacher.
It was time to call it a day and head home.

“But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
Peter was becoming a disciple and he didn’t even know it.
“They caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.”
Peter walked away from his biggest catch to follow Jesus.

Obedience is rarely convenient.
Jesus often asks us to do things that don’t make sense.
He calls us into deeper waters.
It’s hard work, but it results in great blessing.
That’s where the fountains flow.

May our roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.
May we also venture out into the deep waters of faithful obedience.

My favorite word in the Bible that starts with “D” is DEEP.

Next: Exclamation!