Jesus Loves Me

Last week I was listening to the song “Jesus loves me”. I cannot express the inspiration that it breathed on me. It is one thing to remotely live as a man of religion and morality, but it is another thing to sense the personal love of Jesus. It is a great awakening into something tangible.

 

Think for a moment, it is not that Jesus knows you, it is Jesus loves you, it is his tenderness towards a personal you. It is Jesus loves me, Amanuel. It is a distinct and singling out love.

The song which is usually known as children song is well named. It is a man of a child’s heart that can say “Jesus loves me” and demands no authority other than the Bible.
Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.
It is a personal song. It doesn’t include a detached personality something away from life. Jesus’ love deals with real individual persons in their private life. It is a great singling out not to be found in any other relationship than married couple. A couple is entirely with one to one love. There is nothing in between. If one is married, one knows that the spouse says “I love you” in a unique relationship. There is a complete partaking in their lives. There is no privacy when it comes to the knowledge between them. In a sense, the love between me and Jesus is this deep. I am the ultimate person in Jesus’ love. To him I am the end not a means; I am the precious whom he treasures. This knowledge is the source of my joy, yes Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.
What a power I partake of when I come to the sense of such love. I am sure many of us are depressed most of our time in this world out of distraction. We come out of the totality of Jesus’ love, we forget the very source of our sustenance and we end up down. We want then to find our “high” from somebody or something else. We desperately pursue the un-quenching and unsatisfying. Wow, what a sense of rupture we would experience the moment we give our meditation to the fact that “Jesus loves me”.

I read the song in www.cyberhymnal.org a Christian website, there is some history there related to this song. It tells that in the 19th century a little boy in India sang the song to some unbelievers. They were delighted to listen though they didn’t know Jesus and the Bible. As he told them who Jesus and the Bible were according to the missionaries, they said “…the song is a nice one. Come, sing us some more’ for they were experiencing something like love. As for the young boy, it is all about “Jesus loves me”.

I know for sure, the love of Jesus is burning inside of me and that makes me long for my ultimate union with him. What is this world? What are the messes in this age? What are the lacks and agonies and wonders in these days? They are nothing before the “love Jesus loves me.” Though I am at times taken by the terrible things that happen before my eyes, though people of injustice surround the life I live, though people are indifferent to each other’s lives and sufferings and etc, I know some cure that enables to sustain it all.

Jesus loves me still today,
Walking with me on my way,
Wanting as a friend to give
Light and love to all who live.

Yes there are moments when nobody is there for me. I feel alone in a vast universe. I feel the human condition is cruel and full of hopelessness. But these are gone in the face of a love, a friendship that surpasses all toil and turmoil. There He appears in my very need for he is a friend indeed. Then I say “Yes Jesus loves me”. What a moment of joy when I say it again and again “Jesus loves me”. This is the reason he said “I will not leave you orphans”. To live in this world alone, without the hope of Jesus is to be in despair. He knew this. Thus the weeping of the disciples didn’t mean to nothing. My weeping doesn’t mean to nothing. It is answered “Lo, I am always with you.”  Yes I know he is always “walking with me on my way”.

This timeless song was written to a dying little boy by Ana B. Warner. It really belongs to those whose hearts are meek and humble. To those suffering in the tabernacle of flesh, hurting and dying. But, yet harbor no grudge and animosity. Jesus is always there in their hearts. When they sing this song they are comforted as they weep out of the hearts of joy. Their weeping is just the expression of how they long to be joined with Him. It is out of their gratitude to his cares to his sacrifice they weep. They really mean it when they break out singing:    

Jesus loves me! He who died
Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in.

When I personally recognize the character of my lover, what have I but to mimic him. To be affectionate to Him is to imitate Him. I know Jesus loves me for who I am, not out of my lovable-ness, but despite myself. And my love to Him is to be like Him. Not that I am able to be so, but that I want to be so. How I dearly love my Jesus! It is I know, “because he first loved me.” But let me collect my strength and “love Him with eternal love.”

People may say I am out of fashion. They may persecute me for being utterly imprudent, or ridiculously extravagant with affections, but can’t you see my Jesus paid the ultimate price. He died for me, He never complained for paying dearly. Is it too much I love Him? Is it out of compassion I love Him? No, it is out of Love I love Him. And that love surpasses the love of women.

Jesus loves me! He will stay
Close beside me all the way;
Thou hast bled and died for me,
I will henceforth live for Thee.

This is my commitment to him. Yes, my Jesus, I live for you. This is not much for you, you paid my eternal debt. It is my privilege to live for the greatest love the world has ever seen. My journey in this life is but short and bittersweet but when I know that you love me, I am overtaken by joy, the joy to live for you. Thenceforth there is no burden, no regret, no lack or weakness; it is all in all in the knowledge that “Jesus loves me”.

Longing the moment I will see you face to face, sustained by the drink of love, I love to live. I don’t despair nor look down at myself. I share this love to all man woman children elder. Sweet is it to know this love that transcends the minds of men.

Jesus loves me! Loves me still,
Though I’m very weak and ill,
That I might from sin be free
Bled and died upon the tree.

In peace I re-commit myself. My Jesus has given me my life; he has redeemed me from the burden of slavery. I am now alive to assume the life of love. Freedom to me is to be able to love. And I am here to keep my heart pure and full, full of spirit and joy. This I possess the moment I know that “Jesus loves me”.


Amanuel  August 2007