A friend sent this to me and it was written by Candy Sowers. I liked it and I think we can all relate to it as we all know this song from our childhoods.

Patty

A church in Atlanta was honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired for many years. He was 92 years old at the time and I wondered why the church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at his advanced age.

After a warm welcome, introduction of this speaker and as the applause quieted down, he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gait to the pulpit.

Without a note or written paper of any kind, he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak…

“When I was asked to come and talk to you today, your pastor asked me to tell you what the greatest lesson I learned in my 50 odd years of preaching was. I thought about it for a few days and it all boiled down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all the trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me… the only thing that would comfort was this verse…”

Jesus loves me this I know.

For the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong,

We are weak and He is strong…

Yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me,

The Bible tells me so.

The elderly pastor stated, “I always noticed that it was the adults who chose the children’s hymn ‘Jesus Loves Me’ (for the children of course) during hymn sing and it was the adults who sang the loudest because I could see they knew it the best.” The adults do know it best as a song they learned as children and they all know it as they have “been there, done that” so to speak.  More so than most children, they have all lived through tears, heartbreak, pain, sorrow and fear and have personally experienced the comfort of know that Jesus is there for us, we belong to Him and when we are weak, He is strong. We know this from the promise of the scriptures. Most importantly, we know of God’s unconditional love for us through giving His Son, Jesus to die on the cross to take away our sins. Jesus loves us, this we know. Thanks be to God!