He Is Strong: A 7-Day Journey to Finding Strength Amid Your WeaknessSample

"JESUS LOVES ME"

In 2012, my husband and I purchased a taupe rocking chair with square arms and white piping. When we assembled it in the nursery near the end of my first pregnancy, I imagined holding our future children, tired infants I’d sing to sleep in the dark. What I never imagined was rocking a son with disabilities, who’d spend more time in that chair with me than our other four children combined.

When he was an infant, I nursed him and cried because I couldn’t understand why he struggled with feeding and growing. When he was a toddler (who wasn’t talking or toddling), I rocked him to sleep after long days in doctors’ offices, through tough questions and life-altering diagnoses.

When he was a kindergartner, I still laid him across my chest, legs wrapped around my side, jammy feet hanging out over the chair arms—I comforted him through sick nights when he didn’t have the words to tell me what was wrong. I haven’t stopped rocking him yet.

In that chair, I prayed. I asked God some gut-wrenching questions. I sat in silence. But most of all, I sang. I don’t have a beautiful voice and can barely capture a melody, but through many sorrows and late nights, I could sing. I’d gaze at the dim lights in the hallway or nuzzle into his ear or close my eyes, and then I’d rotate through every hymn I could sing from memory. “All Creatures of Our God and King.” “How Firm a Foundation.” “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” “Rock of Ages.” “Amazing Grace.” Eventually, I’d find the one I always finished with, the one I repeated until he was fast asleep: “Jesus Loves Me.”

Sitting there in the quiet house, I’d play around with the wording. I’d sing it as “Jesus loves you,” or I’d insert my name or his name. I’d sing it as a fact. As a cure. As a whisper in the dark. As my only hope. A streaming promise on loop.

One Sunday morning, in the midst of those early years, I turned the page of our sermon guide and saw that we were singing “Jesus Loves Me.” I was unprepared for the effect it would have on me to hear a room full of adults join in the chorus of the rocking chair. It was so simple but so profound. So plain but so true. And perhaps my favorite revelation from that morning was the fact that the song includes more verses than the one I’d learned as a child. I came to treasure every word.

In what songs or Scripture verses do you find your hope?