Little ones to Him belong

I know you have heard the song, Jesus Loves Me – probably since a child you have known it.

                                               Jesus loves me, this I know,

                                               for the Bible tells me so.

                                               Little ones to Him belong.          

                                               They are weak, but He is strong!

                Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so!

Matthew can play it on his French horn. We sing it often. The message is profound. It refers to us all whether we recognize that we are children compared to the Almighty. And we are weak compared to His strength. But I leave all that theology for someone else.

But I bet you have no idea who wrote these lyrics and the reason she wrote them. Anna Warner is her name – lived during the Civil War. She was a contemporary of the greatest American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But she, kind of like me, was a little-known author 😊. But her sister, a novelist, included Anna’s poem in her book about a dying child. The poem gave comfort to the boy as he looked forward to heaven. And the poem became a song, and the song went viral!

I just learned this information yesterday, when out of the blue I asked Ron, “Who wrote that song?” And being the good informant, googled and woo-hoo, we got our answer.

It was a profound story to me, because of my present activity. For 11 years I have been part of a ministry that writes notes, three to four times a year, to bereaved parents. I was working through this process, feeling deeply grieved for these parents (especially so this time of year). How does one encourage those who are feeling painful loss? Again, the subject of dead and dying children up against an Almighty, all-powerful, all-loving God – not one I am going to tackle here.

But I come back to the above lyrics. I put my trust, my mind, on things above. God loves. God knows. God cares. He is Strong. I am not! As I contemplate the God who was willing to put himself in the most vulnerable spot in our world – a womb, I can’t deny that He loves me! And He loves the precious parents who can’t see past their own pain to the hope of Heaven. Pray today for the people in your lives who are grieving this Christmas season. Not everyone is “Merry and Bright”.

Twenty-nine years ago, we engraved on our son’s tombstone: “Little ones to Him belonged.” We had no idea it was written to encourage a little boy just like ours. Amazing! It did just that!

Joan