Arms Wide Open

I cannot even deal with how the Holy Spirit is healing and ministering to me through this song, exactly where I'm at right now...I don't know how I haven't come across it before but the timing could not be more perfect than right now and I know that's the reason. God always knows. 


What's all the more amazing is how this ties directly in with a word God spoke to me at the very beginning of this year that I knew would be my guiding theme and meditation for the year. Though I know I heard Him, His exact words clearly, I didn't fully understand it at the time, and have spent a lot of this year recalling it to mind and praying it over and questioning what He meant by it. And now, in worshiping to this song, taking in its lyrics, it came...confirmation of His word spoken over me at the beginning of the year and life-altering revelation of its meaning right as the year draws to a close...full circle. I understand. How is He so good? How are His ways and His timing so perfect? His love and His faithfulness absolutely blow me away. 


Soak in this pure, indescribable, glorious BEAUTY and be completely undone.

"What does love look like?” is the question I’ve been pondering
“What does love look like?”
“What does love look like?” is the question I’ve been asking of You

I once believed that love was romance, just a chance
I even thought that love was for the lucky and the beautiful
I once believed that love was a momentary bliss
But love is more than this
All You ever wanted was my attention
All You ever wanted was love from me
All You ever wanted was my affections, to sit here at Your feet
Then tell me

“What does love look like?” is the question I’ve been pondering
“What does love look like?”

Then I sat down, a little frustrated and confused
If all of life comes down to love
Then love has to be more than sentiment
More than selfishness and selfish gain

And then I saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking at me
I saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking at me
He was looking at me, looking at Him, staring through me
I could not escape those beautiful eyes
And I began to weep and weep

He had arms wide open, a heart exposed
Arms wide open
He was bleeding, bleeding

Love’s definition, love’s definition was looking at me
Looking at Him, hanging on a tree
I began to weep and weep and weep and weep

This is how I know what love is
This is how I know what love is

And as I sat there weeping, crying
Those beautiful eyes, full of desire and love
He said to me:

“You shall love Me, You shall love Me
You shall love Me, You shall love Me
With arms wide open, a heart exposed
With arms wide open, bleeding, sometimes bleeding

If anybody’s looking for love in all the wrong places
If you’ve been searching for love, come to Me, come to Me
Take up your cross, deny yourself
Forget your father’s house and run, run with Me
You were made for abandonment, wholeheartedness
You were made for someone greater, someone bigger, so follow Me
And You’ll come alive when you learn to die"

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

We love because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19