Wherever I have been this week, shop windows have been covered in hearts – mostly red but one phone shop particularly had blue ones. Love is in the air.
I was reminded of my Dad singing the good old hymn, ’Jesus loves me, this I know’. He wasn’t a church goer in his later years but had been to Sunday school as a child (he was one of eight children and I think by the time it got to Sunday, my grandparents were keen to pack their brood off to Sunday school so they could get an hour’s respite!). The words had stuck with him over the years. I often wonder how much mental illness has been fended off through past generations going to church at an early age and having a grounding in hymns with a sound theology that has stayed with them when times got tough.
Anyway, I researched the origin of the hymn. Originally written as a poem by Anna Bartlett Warner in the context of an 1860 novel by her older sister Susan Warner, the comforting words were spoken to a dying child. The tune and now familiar chorus were added in 1862 by Willian Batchelder Bradbury and it became a popular hymn.
The hymn was titled ‘China’ in some 19th century hymn books because it was purported to be the favourite hymn of China.
However and whenever it came into being, this hymn is important and memorable because of the great truth it contains. Yes, Jesus loves me! (and you, and everyone!) Even though He knows us inside and out. He’s been with us at our worst – those times when we blush inwardly when we remember what we did, thought or said – hoping there were no human witnesses! Those times when we were scared or anxious or hated ourselves or were angry. There is nothing we can do to stop Him from loving us. Another person’s love for us may be fickle and conditional but Jesus is God and God is love. God is unchangeable. His love is always and forever. Amen