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

JESUS LOVES

Jesus loves me—this I know,
For the Bible tells me so:
Little ones to him belong—
They are weak, but he is strong.

The first stanza of “Jesus Loves Me” is personal. The song doesn’t just reflect on Jesus’s love for mankind or his church in general but on Jesus’s love for “me” specifically. For whoever opens their mouth to sing. For those who struggle to confidently speak a proclamation of Jesus’s love out loud, the second line rushes in as a confident child’s retort: “For the Bible tells me so!” In case there was any doubt of Jesus’ love, the authority of Scripture shores it up.

On the firm foundation of Jesus’s love, proven by God’s Word, an identification statement is made. Who belongs to Jesus? Little ones. “Little ones” can be taken literally to mean a child (especially considering the context of the original poem), but figuratively, the term represents the children of God. The sheep that the tender shepherd, Jesus, carries in His arms. As we see ourselves as little ones, we’re included as those who belong. Just as we observe the contrast between father and child, shepherd and sheep, the song declares who is weak and who is strong. Strength doesn’t belong to the little ones but to Jesus Christ, the Lord.