O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go

"O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go" has been a favorite song of mine for a while...the lyrics and music together are so beautiful, so majestic, so moving.  And when I learned the story behind the song, I loved it all the more, so I decided to share it here with you. 
"O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go" was written on the evening of [George] Matheson’s sister’s marriage. Years before, he had been engaged, until his fiancée learned that he was going blind—that there was nothing the doctors could do—and she told him that she could not go through life with a blind man. He went blind while studying for the ministry, and his sister had been the one to care for him through the years, but now she was gone. He was now 40, and his sister’s marriage brought a fresh reminder of his own heartbreak. It was in the midst of this circumstance and intense sadness that the Lord gave Matheson this hymn, which he said was written in five minutes. ~Wikipedia

lyrics from Cyber Hymnal

O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,

I yield my flickering torch to thee;

My heart restores its borrowed ray,

That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from thee;

I lay in dust life’s glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be.

One interesting note about the lyrics--even though the author was blind and would only have memories of seeing colors, in the last two verses it talks about brilliant colors [rainbow, red] that Matheson looked forward to seeing again in Heaven.