Sometimes the simple songs are the most profound.
Love Songs in Church
I don’t remember learning, “Jesus Loves Me,” but it must have been in Sunday school because I learned it so young, I’ve been singing it “all my life.” Such sweet, precious truth. “Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me…the Bible tells me so.” It’s such a comforting song and I’ve sang babies to sleep with it many times.
In junior high, another song about God’s love always brought me to tears in church, “Oh How He Loves You and Me.” Something about the way the song was built musically and the anointing on it brought the truth of God’s love home to me. It crashed over the defensive walls around my heart like a wave and always found a way in. “He gave His life / What more could He do / Oh how He loves you / Oh how He loves me / Oh how He loves you and me.”
God’s Love: Technicality or Desire?
God’s love was something I always knew in my head, but had a hard time feeling that it was true…for me. I mean, technically, God loved me. (He had to, right?) But it was hard to grasp the truth of how God felt about me. Surely, He didn’t want to love me.
Over the years, God has worked on this in me…convincing me of His love. One thought that helped was that I could do nothing to make God love me less and I could do nothing to make God love me more. I couldn’t earn more of His love because He already loved me completely, perfectly. And not in some distant relative, pinch-your-cheek-at-a-funeral kind of way either. He loves with a deep, personal, overwhelming, intimate love.
God’s Crazy About Us! (Oh!)
These days, the song “How He Loves” captures it perfectly. “He loves us, oh how He loves us…” (You can see the video here. Be sure to watch the whole thing.) We need to understand that God really loves us, not because He has to, but because He has chosen to and He has proven this over and over. He loves us. We have His full attention. Nothing escapes Him. He is concerned for every little thing that concerns us. He knows us so much better than we know ourselves. And He’s crazy about us! Smitten. Over the moon. Yes, over me. Over you. “He loves us, oh how He loves us.”
God’s eyes are turned toward us. He heart is full of love for us. He wants a daily relationship with us. His love is overwhelming, but we need to let it overwhelm us and realize how good and pure it is. His love is amazing. We need to see ourselves through His eyes and grasp a little part of His heart: He loves us!
“Oh how He loves you / Oh, how He loves me / Oh how He loves you and me!”
Do you readily accept and bask in God’s love or it is hard for you to believe He loves you? Either way, why do you think that is?