Matthew 19:13-15

Jesus’ love for little children is clear in the Gospels: “Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’ And he laid his hands on them and went away” (Matthew 19:13-15).

A story which I read or heard years ago always comes to my mind when I sing this song. Karl Barth, a renowned theologian was visiting a seminary and was taking questions from the theology students. One student asked Barth what, from all his years of study, did he believe was the most profound truth of the Scriptures. Barth began to sing “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Mature disciples should put away childish things, as Paul teaches: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor 13:11). But the love of Christ for his own is not one of those childish things. One dying at age 100 could have no greater ending to life than to die with the words “Jesus loves me this I know” on one’s lips.

Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.