Merry Christmas, friends, and welcome to another installment of The Gospel According To at The Fangirl Fulfilled. Today I wanted to talk about another absolutely exquisite song from one of my favorite chill-and-thoughtful artists, Sleeping At Last. Many of their songs feel like worship/Gospel to me, even though the singer-songwriter hasn’t expressed any belief that I can tell. It’s actually amazing how much Sleeping At Last’s song “Mother” sounds like a faith-based, super poetic song to me. And it’s the perfect song for the Christmas season. Hope you enjoy!
Fandom: “Love bigger than the ocean/ Is what you’ve given to me…” – Sleeping At Last, “Mother”
Truth: God’s love is bigger than the ocean, utterly incomprehensible, and yet closer and more real than anything else in this world.
The fandom: Sleeping At Last “Mother”
Seriously, this song is so beautiful, it’s amazing 😻 Just about every line sounds like a Bible verse to me, and it’s so lovely. But also on the person-to-person level, the singer is giving thanks for the love that his mother has given him throughout his life, and the way that loving his own children is a gift in itself. My favorite is the phrase “love bigger than the ocean” and the way that it reminds me SO MUCH of the love that God has for us. Verse references – John 3:16,
There are other ideas in this song too, like “The shores, they were mighty scary/ But at my back I had the mighty sea” from the first verse. In the original meaning, the singer is probably talking about how his mother’s love and support made living life (I thought of the first day of kindergarten, for example) a little less scary. In the same way, knowing that God has already given us everything we need for “life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3) helps us to have courage and confidence for every situation we encounter in life. We know that God’s love will never fail or run out on us, and that gives us the ability to rest and “swim free” in His love, experiencing a peace and joy that is truly beyond comprehension (Ephesians 3:17-21, Psalm 103:11-14, Jude 24-25).
“There’s something so strange about human nature/ We get so used to the gifts that we receive/ Now I’m more than grateful for a love bigger than the ocean…” “I hope you know I couldn’t be more proud/ Of this life swimmin’ in a love deeper than the ocean.” This artist just hits the nail on the head so many times with his lyrics! He’s talking about human love, yes, and the fact that we all tend to take things for granted, but just apply that to our ultimate Father God and it just gets so much deeper.
Just this past week I was standing in church service, in a funk because I couldn’t see how the things I want to do in life will ever happen, and I couldn’t quite bring myself to sing the worship songs out loud. And a few hours later, a week later, that feels so silly and ungrateful a thing for me to do. Thanks be to God, always, that His love is more abundant than my momentary emotions. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). “Now I’m more than grateful for a love bigger than the ocean.”
“Now we’ve got children of our own/ We dive back into the love that we have known/ As you’ve loved us, we will love them to the brim/ Because of you, they already know how to swim/ In a love bigger than the ocean…” There’s something beautiful about the love between a parent and a child, something that’s completely unique as far as I can tell. Never having experienced it for myself, I can’t speak much into it, but this song does so beautifully. I can imagine that having your own kid brings the love that your parents have for you into focus in a way that nothing else can.
I have experienced the idea of having “spiritual kids,” as in kids that I’ve invested in, particularly by sharing the Gospel or the Word with them and watching them come to/grow in faith as a result. And let me tell you, watching someone, especially a kid, come to know the Lord for the first time, watching the light come on in their eyes as you’re sharing with them, is by far the best feeling ever. I think it’s the best feeling in the world. And that’s what this verse of “Mother” is speaking to me, telling my own story of promising my Father to “love them to the brim” and showing “my” kids how to experience the depth of God’s love for themselves. Verse references: 2 Corinthians 9:8, Jude 24-25.
the verses
I have certainly soothed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child [resting] against his mother, My soul within me is like a weaned child.
Psalm 131:2 NASB
This psalm is one of the shortest chapters in the whole Bible at only three verses! I studied it over this past summer and discovered that it has a lot of depth for such a short passage. This psalmist is talking about a level of spiritual maturity that looks to God like an older child, no longer coming to Him only for what He can give to us, but primarily just looking for closeness and fellowship. It feels like the overall atmosphere of Sleeping At Last “Mother” to me. So sweet and lovely!
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 NASB
This verse is the definition of “love bigger than the ocean.” I mean, there isn’t a whole lot more to add here, it’s the flagship verse of Christianity for a reason, amiright? If you’ve spent any time at all in a church, you’ve probably heard it before, maybe even memorized it. And yet its beauty cannot be overstated: God, the Creator of Everything, loved us so much that He gave Himself for us.
[and] that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him [be] the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:17-21 NASB
We could spend a lifetime contemplating and pondering and expounding upon the depths and heights and widths and depths of God’s love, and still never reach the end of it. Kinda like how, after centuries of traveling over it and mapping its surface and exploring some of its depths, humanity still doesn’t completely understand the world’s oceans. There’s just so much there! Maybe that’s why… to point out to us the vastness of God and His love?
Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? [They are as] high [as] the heavens; what can you do? Deeper than Sheol; what can you know? Its measurement is longer than the earth And broader than the sea.
Job 11:7-9 NASB
This passage is talking about God Himself rather than the one attribute that is His love, but it still fits with today’s study. Context note: “Sheol” as I understand it is like the underworld, not super positive but not super fire-and-brimstone either. The point being that God is greater and wider and deeper and longer than the sea and the deepest abyss we can possibly think of, and His every attribute, including His love, is done to the uttermost. (Pretty sure Jen Wilkin said something like that… I read her book None Like Him around this time last year and LOVED it! Here’s the review I wrote in case you’re interested)
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our wrongdoings from us. Just as a father has compassion on [his] children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
Psalm 103:11-14 NASB
Just like we can sit on the end of a dock at night, gazing into the depths of a lake and wondering how deep they go, we can also look up at the endlessness of space and wonder. These verses talk about God abundantly loving, abundantly forgiving, and having abundant compassion on us, just like a father (or mother) would do. The mother-love that this Sleeping At Last song is talking about is a beautiful reflection of this love that God has for us.
And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
2 Corinthians 9:8 NASB
As God pours out His love on us, He also invites us into His love, giving us opportunities to give it away to others. That’s part of what it means to be a disciple of Christ, answering the “invitation to a love bigger than the ocean” and taking part in God’s mission.
Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 24-25 NASB
Amen! Yeah, that’s about all I have to say about this passage, it pretty much speaks for itself. He protects us from stumbling, He hunts down every danger, if you will, so that we can stand in His presence, lost in His love.
for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
2 Peter 1:3 NASB
This is such a good verse to memorize and meditate on! Because of Christ, because God has accepted us in Him and given us everything that we need, we are enough. We have enough. We are enough.
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
2 Corinthians 9:15 NASB
Amen!
The Gospel according to Sleeping At Last “Mother”
I believe that the Gospel message, or the steps of becoming a believer and receiving the gift of salvation, can be broken up into three parts:
- I am. Who is God? What is He like? Who are we, and why are we here? Is there more to life than just the time between our birth and our death?
- God is the Creator and Lord of everything that we know. He is light, He is absolutely perfect, and He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is also love, and He created each and every one of us to live in relationship with Him. We, on the other hand, are hard-wired to resist that relationship. Because of the rebellion of the first humans, our nature is to resist God’s rule, and we are therefore separated from Him. This separation is called sin. Our sin causes us to feel a void or emptiness that we try to fill with other relationships or pursuits (like pleasure or success), but that can only truly be filled with the relationship with God that we were meant to have. For more thoughts on this, check out this post.
- With you. How can I “fix” my sin problem and find joy, peace, and a relationship with God?
- There is only one way to restore the relationship that we were always meant to have with the God who created us, and that is Jesus. As we already discussed above, Jesus, the Son of God, came as a human to rescue and restore us while we were weak, helpless to fix ourselves. He showed the love of God for us by subjecting Himself to all of the indignities and suffering of the Cross, and died a criminal’s death, even though He had done no wrong. Because of His perfect sacrifice, Jesus was able to end the eternal separation between us and God, and now gives us the choice to receive His gift of salvation and eternal life. For more thoughts, see this post.
- Always. God shows His faithfulness and steadfast love for His people (originally Israel, now including all who believe in Him) throughout Scripture. He will always be with us, and gives us reminders of His presence and His truth through Holy Spirit, who inhabits every believer. Through Him, we have eternal forgiveness of sin, access to His throne room through prayer, and the ability to grow into the people we were always meant to be, free from the power of sin. After we die, we have the promise of Heaven, where we will see our Lord face to face and never have to suffer or be separated from Him again. For more thoughts, see this post.
I believe this song goes best with the “always” part of the Gospel story. Before we knew or acknowledged Him, God loved us with a love bigger and deeper than the ocean. He invites us into His love, both when we first come to Him and every day as we continue to walk with Him. God offers us His love without reservation or condition, only that we would begin to acknowledge Him in return by confessing Jesus as Lord. When receive God’s love in Jesus, He embraces us as fully as a Father (or Mother) embraces the child who has finally come Home. He places His Holy Spirit in us, reminding us of how deeply loved we are. He gives us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter) so that we don’t have to be afraid or try to make our own way anymore. We, in turn, like the singer of this song, spend our lives giving thanks to God for His inexpressible gift (2 Corinthians 9) by generously giving the love that we’ve received – either by our actions reflecting him or by the words we give, sharing truth with our people as we continue to receive it for ourselves.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s post on Sleeping At Last and this lovely song, “Mother.” So many of his songs are absolutely exquisite, and I can’t wait to explore more of them with you.
Do you have any goals for 2024? Whether you do or not, take a deep breath with me and remember: In Christ, you are enough.
Happy fangirling!
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