“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1
While I was in Galveston with my family over July 4th my Mom and I got in an interesting conversation. Well, we got in quite a few interesting conversations, but one of them in particular has continued pestering me. There is a really old and intriguing graveyard in Galveston and I’m not sure if the bleak but somehow alluring glimpse of it was what got us going off on a tangent or if our own eccentricities pulled this conversation out of nowhere. Knowing us probably the latter, right? Anyway, the two of us were discussing how unique the child and parent relationship is in the human experience. How the unconditional love of a parent for a child is so matchless and so unique that it is difficult, if not virtually impossible to find something with which to compare it. She described to me the way her heart felt the first time she saw the two headstones of her mom and dad sitting side by side one another in the Davis-Greenlawn cemetery. The way it felt for her to be left alone in this world without any parents, the very human beings whose mutual existence brought her into this world. It sent a chill up my spine. Now, my Mom would be the first to assure you that her relationship with her parents was far from a perfect or idyllic one. It was, in fact, a very difficult and complicated relationship but still that truth didn’t shake or numb the dreadful feeling of being orphaned.
I got to thinking after Mom and I had this overly melancholy yet truly significant conversation how many of you feel or have felt orphaned. I bet there are several of you who don’t have anyone to go along with you to a really scary doctor’s appointment. I imagine there are a handful of you who have no one to share the burden of waiting months on end to hear back about what may seem to be a very daunting prognosis. And I wonder if there are even a few of you younger women who spend the entire day looking after and meeting the needs of several of your own children without the comfort of having even one of your own parents around to cheer you on and to tell you what a great parent you are.
I cannot presume to know what it is like to lose both parents or even to have inactive parents. But, I can say that over the past year or so nothing has resounded clearer to me than that sobering reality that I am officially an adult. I’m not talking about some of the superficial things that come along with getting older like getting wrinkles, I am talking about days when I’m sick as a dog here in Atlanta and I no longer have my mom around to tickle my back and bring me 7-Up, saltines and chicken noodle soup. I’ve had some moments when I want to lace up my running shoes and start sprinting back home to my Mom because I’ve finally decided that adulthood is totally overrated and the last thing I want to do is clean my kitchen. I’ve had a couple of days when my heart has been so broken that the thought of sitting on my dad’s lap or being in my mom’s embrace was the only thing I felt could really suffice. Many of those days Colin has been around to love on me but the Lord has made certain that he was gone on several of those days as well.
I can remember one week in particular several months back when I was tied to the bed with an incapacitating migraine and Colin was on a long business trip in Miami. In my misery, I had a revelation. I came to realize that at the end of the day, it really was just my Creator and me. You’re thinking to yourself, “Good night, Melissa, you majored in Biblical Studies, and you just figured this out!?!” How true it is that some theological truths can only be learned with time and experience. Anyway, the feeling of being all alone heightened the reality that ultimately God is my comforter. My doctor could only do so much and the pharmaceutical companies had all but failed me. I had some intense and providential moments that week slowly learning how to be consoled by a God who I cannot see or touch. For the first time in my life, in adulthood no less, I truly felt like a child of God. It may sound silly but every night of that week I listened to the album called Sing Over Me: Worship Songs and Lullabies (on very low volume, by the way). The most unlikely song was the one that I listened to repeatedly, “Jesus Loves Me” sung by Christy Nockels.
A make-up artist friend of mine told me the other day that she was on a photo-shoot with a young woman getting her bridal portraits taken. She relayed to me how the photographer instructed this young woman to think of her soon-to-be-husband while she was posing and the tears just started streaming down her cheeks. I feel about like that young woman did when I hear this version of “Jesus Loves Me”. I feel overtaken with emotion for some reason. Maybe it’s because the older I get the more I realize just how weak I really am and how dumbfounding it is that Jesus could really love me. Or maybe it’s because Christy sings the song with such conviction, like she means it. It’s really sweet to hear the song sung by a group of children but it’s wholly different to hear a grown woman sing it. To hear a grown person with fully developed mental faculties sing, “Yes, Jesus Loves Me”, well, it moves me. Don’t get me wrong, I love children, but when I hear a person who is fully aware of things like mortality, economic meltdowns and global catastrophes sing a song like “Yes, Jesus Loves Me” with such purity it slays me.
If you haven’t read or heard the song in a while, here are the lyrics:
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.
Oh, yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
For the Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me!
He who died
Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Oh, yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
For the Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me
He will stay close beside me all the way
He’s prepared a home for me
And someday his face I’ll see.
Oh, yes, Jesus loves me.
Oh, yes, Jesus loves me.
He loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
For the Bible tells me so.
Pretty powerful, right? Perhaps we skipped a couple of those verses in kindergarten because I don’t remember the song being all that weighty. Maybe I was too busy eating a donut. The donuts were my favorite thing about Sunday school growing up. Yes, I was sinful at birth. The first line I love is “little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong”. I like to think of “little ones” not just as young children but as you and me. I figure I have some license since in the gospel of John, Jesus addresses grown men as “little children” (John 13:33; 21:5 “children”). Lately I’ve been reading a lot about being called children of God and what the implications of this reality are during our earthly journey. This past week I came across a sermon by John Piper in April 1995 called “The Depth of Christ’s Love: Its Lavish Benefits”. He comments on this text, 1 John 3:1 and I think you’ll enjoy reading it. I was most moved by the second half.
“Not only did it cost him his Son to save us from sin and death and hell and not only were we enemies so that God had to propitiate his own righteous anger in order to save us but he went way beyond the love of rescue and the love of sacrifice and the love of clemency to his enemies. In and through all this he had a greater design. He showed us another kind of love beyond all that. He might have rescued us, sacrificed for us, forgiven us, and not gone any further. But instead he showed us another kind of love—he took us into his family. He made us to be called children of God. Don’t take this for granted. First of all, he might not have saved us at all. He might have said, “Enemies don’t deserve saving, and that’s that.” He might have said, “My Son is too precious to pay for angels, let alone humans, let alone ungodly, rebellious humans.” But he also might have said, “I will save them from hell, and forgive their sins, and give them eternal existence—on another planet, and I will communicate with them through angels.” Nothing in us, or in the nature of the world required that God would go beyond all redeeming, forgiving, rescuing, healing love to this extreme—namely, to an adopting love. A love that will not settle for a truce, or a formal gratitude, or distant planet of material pleasure, but will press all the way in to make you a child of God. A member of the family. But even that is not an adequate description of this kind of love. When John writes about our becoming children of God, he is not thinking mainly in terms of adoption. He is thinking in terms of something more profound. He is thinking of new birth. There is no human analogy to this…The love that John has in view here in 1 John 3:1 is not the love that merely takes care of paper work and adopts. That would be amazing beyond words—to be adopted into God’s family. And Paul does describe it this way. But John sees more. God does not adopt. He moves in, by his Spirit, his seed, John calls it, and imparts something of himself to us, so that we take on a family resemblance” (John Piper).
Being called a child of God is not just a metaphor.
It is who we are.
Regardless of how self-sufficient we imagine ourselves to be.
Or how old we are.
Our Father is close beside us all the way.
In our darkest and loneliest hours.
Long after our earthly parents are gone.
During a string of seemingly endless doctor’s appointments.
And at the moment we draw our very last breath.
In Christ, we are never truly orphaned.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1
That we should be called children of God.
What a wonder.
My Dad died 20 years ago tomorrow.
My dear saintly interceding Mom is aging. My marriage has struggles like anyone else's. I have no children, and one sister who refuses to speak to anyone in the family any longer. She has broken our hearts. She wont reconcile.
The main thing God keeps teaching me lately is, no one else will be there constantly, loving, accepting and holding me up. He's Abba Father, He's interceding on my behalf, He's my bridegroom and I am in His family with many brothers and sisters.
Yes, Jesus love me.
Wow! Thank you for writing this. I've read it a couple of times and I think I will be back for more. So needed in my life right now. Thank you!
Melissa-WOW–I so needed that today.
Blessings,
Jennifer
Even though neither of my parents are anything like yours – I don't feel safe to go to them, they are not "comforting" – they are there. My husband has lost both of his parents to cancer, and I know it is very different for him, not having parents at all here for him.
I have felt like you have many, many times. Countless times that I have felt so overwhelmed by my life (and/or my marriage) and no one to turn to. No one but God. It is then I realize the most that it really is just me and Him, when it comes down to it.
Thanks for the beautiful post.
This came at a most needed time for me, Melissa. I have had such a hard time this week longing for my Mom.
I lost my Mom a year ago to breast cancer that took her life in 9 months from the time we found out she had it. She was a wonderful mother, wife, grandmother,friend and overall person. Never once did I hear her complain during the whole ordeal of what she had to go through. Not even when we held hands as she had to have her head shaved becasue of loosing her hair. No words were needed, tears said it all.
She went into the hospital on Mother's Day weekend and she lived for 12 days. Seven of those days she was in a total non-responsive state. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do but by the 6th day I dropped to my knees and begged God to take her. I couldn't stand to see her gasp for every breath. She was my very best friend in the world. The nurse came in as I was praying and she asked me was there some unfinished business that my mother had. I told her no, my mom was at peace. That night I called the whole family to the hospital. My Dad, brothers and our spouses, grandchildren and great grand children gathered around my mothers bed and sang Jesus loves me, and What a Day That Will Be Wwhen Jesus We See. We told her to let go we would be fine and would see her soon. It was a touching time to hear grandchildren tell her what she meant to them, even though I don't know if she heard. It was the hardest, yet sweetest, moment of my life when she took her last breath to be instantly with Jesus. In my mind I could see her bowed before Jesus Singing "you are my King." Oh how I wish I could have been there to see the greatest moment of her life. What a unspeakable moment that must have been for her.
Although I am married with a beautiful family, I miss her and her encouragement to me that only a Mom knows when she see's that her child needs it. I long for her touch and to hear her voice.
I am so thankfulthat Jesus loved her enough to know the exact moment for her to come to Him. What a Wonderful, Precious Father we serve. Jesus loves me, and each of us, Yes He does.
Blessings,
Wendy
Memphis, TN
Thank you for posting this. This post spoke volumes to me. Things I've known and somehow forgotten.
Thank you for allowing God to speak through you.
Wow! I mean what else can I say! Wow!
Beautiful!
I'm so glad that Jesus loves me and that he didn't give up on me! I have had a pretty rough 5 months and He has been teaching me that he is all I need and I am loving him so much more. Sometimes he will bring you to a point in your life where only he can help you and you have to put all your faith and trust in him which I am learning to do. It reminds me of a song can't think of the title but the chorus says I keep falling in love with him over and over and over and over again I keep falling in love with him over and over and over and over again he gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by o what a love between my Lord and I just keep falling in love with him over and over and over and over again. I lost my Granny Rose 4 years ago and it about killed me she was the rock in my family and I loved her so much and It scares me to death to think about losing my parents. However my parents got a divorce when I was 19 and it felt like a death. Know what I mean? Its hard to explain because nothing is the same after your parents split You not only loose touch with them but I felt like I lost something special with my brothers I know this may sound stupid but I don't know how else to explain it but its like you have a family one day and then you don't. I just hate divorce and your parents can not see why you struggle with it because they are finally free and happy. You'd think I'd be over it by now for crying out loud I am 30!!!! Anyways that was a very powerful post I love ya girl
Kelly Jo
Albany Ky
To "anonymous" that responded with hope to my post at "2:11 am – eek! go to bed" I'm encouraged that you were encouraged sweetie. Now I'd like to ask for some of that encouragement back from my siestas. My close girlfriend – you know, the one you literally raise your babies with – just pulled out of my driveway for the last time in a long, long time. She and her hubby are headed to SouthEast Asia as IMB missionaries. We each have four babies making a total of 8 with the oldest one having turned 8 in June. We have been pregnant together, we "broke free" together, we have shopped at Wal Mart at 2 in the morning together. There are times when I just don't know what I'll do without her. But this is God's plan and He has a purpose for them going. As badly as it is hurting both of our hearts we want more than anything for God to be glorified. So for one last time we lined up all 8 of our kiddos on the couch from oldest to youngest and took their last "little kid" picture together. Anyway, if my siestas would be praying for her and her hubby as they scurry around doing their last minute things to "board the plane" I'd appreciate it. I can't disclose their names so just for fun we'll call them Charlie and Lola. And pray for me. I feel selfish asking but my heart is really sad tonight. I could use some girlfriend love.
This is such a comforting post to me. I lost my mom to cancer when I was 18. I have always felt shorted that I didn't get to know her as an adult. She wasn't at my wedding or the birth of my daughter. And she wasn't around last month when I lost my dad. I too am now an orphan in this world. And while I have my husband and wonderful daughter, I feel the pang of loneliness all too often and get angry that my parents aren't here for me to talk to. Reading this post brought me comfort during a time when I'm still grieving over the loss of my earthly father.
Sandra
Mitzi
Kannapolis, NC
Melissa, thank you so much for sharing! You are precious! Everything you wrote touched my heart.
I want to share a poem with you that I wrote in memory of my grandparents:
Green beans in your apron on a summer day,
Bread dough in a wooden bowl – the biscuits for this day.
Apple pies are baking: the coffee's on to boil.
Papa's outside digging putting seeds into the soil.
Though these are not the only seeds that were planted there that day.
The seeds you planted in my heart are still growing here this day.
God told you to plant them and He would make them grow.
You did the things He told you because you loved Him so!
What grace the Savior showed me to let me hear his voice
Through a worn out, tattered Bible and Papa was His choice.
These memories are sweeter as each day passes by,
and now I finally realize I saw Jesus in your eyes.
You lived each day to serve Him, and you did this faithfully.
How thankful I did witness how one's life ought to be:
Giving, caring, sharing – leaving self behind,
So others could see Jesus and not be left behind.
Granny told us not to waste our time going to her grave,
or spend our money on flowers – that money we could save.
"I will not be there," she said, and I knew that was true.
She was going home to Jesus and I
wanted to go there too!
These were two simple people – not rich in human eye,
but imagine them in heaven – I know we'll be surprised!
My parents are still alive but have never "been there" for me. I've felt abandoned ever since I was 4 years old. What I wouldn't give for someone to be there for me, to feel unconditional love, to have someone go with me to the doctor, to have someone I can count on when I need them. I have been let down by so many people so many times. I won't have an inheritance from my parents. I won't ever have the love from them that I so desperately need.
What a relief to know that I can find in Jesus everything that I lack here on Earth. How I long to someday see Him in Heaven and finally receive everything I need so badly… I can hardly wait to run into His open arms.
Melissa thank you again for your thoughtful and heartfelt insight. The song Jesus Loves Me also created a powerful moment with me several years ago. I was a young mother feeling overwhelmed.On one particular Sunday morning when I was wondering if it was really worth all the effort to get myself and toddler ready to get out of the house in time to get to church. I had sat down in the rocker crying and felling very overwhelmed when my toddler came up to me and asked me to sing "Jesus loves Mommy". I began to sing Jesus loves you … and he interrupted me and said "no – sing Jesus loves Mommy" I stopped and then with tears rolling down my face sang "Jesus loves Mommy this I know…" It was just what I needed to be reminded that Jesus did indeed love me and Yes it was worth all of the trouble to get me and my toddler ready to spend time with others worshiping our precious Lord and Savior.
wow, I am speechless after reading this. I lost my father when I was 15 years old, right before Christmas. After that, this holiday was a nightmare for me. However, a few years ago, after completing "Breaking Free", I was able to truly realize that God is my father and He gave evertyhing to me. He also took somethings (people) from me for my betterment. That day, I thanked God for taking my daddy. But I thanked him more for feeling in in a wonderful way and not just as my heavenly father, but my heavenly daddy. I know God knows the plans he has for me. Thank you, Melissa for reminding me what God really did for me and for many others.
Thank you, Melissa, for this wonderful post! I am doing the summer study and trying to throw out some old thoughts I use to beat myself up. One of them is a deep rooted fear of abandonment that I can't even put my finger on where it came from. To know that Jesus loves me and will be there, no matter what, in spite of who I am or what I've done, slays me too….how can we not give back our praise and worship to such a wonderful God? He is so worthy!
Johnnie in NC
Simply, thank you, Melissa. Thank You my Father.
I sit here with tears. This post blew me away at so many levels. I never have thought about this in the way you expressed these truths. If only we could grasp God's love for us, for me, His liitle child. Thank you, Melissa, for opening my eyes, and heart, to this comfort. In Jesus' Love Kathy Knoblock
thank you for sharing that…. it has truly touched me this morning.
HALLELUJAH! What an insightful, touching, warming, soul-satisfying reminder! We are never orphans. We are always, eternally His! Thank you, Melissa!
What a wonderful knowledge. That I have a Father who loves me deeply and will never leave me.
Siestas, I can't stress enough how blessed you'll be if you check out JOHN PIPER's website, desiringgod.org. His sermons are free for download and his books are available on a 'pay what you can afford' basis.
Amber in TN
Melissa ~ that was amazing. Your words are very poignant and inspiring. I cried! You definitely have a gift of writing. Thank you for bringing it all to light! ~ Cammie
This really makes you think. I mean, we know that Jesus loves us, but how many of us really think and ponder about how much and what He and the Father did for us and what it means for us? What John Piper said is profound – about it's more than adoption and that God moves in by His Spirit and imparts something of Himself to us, so that we take on a family resemblance. We really are His children and heirs. Incredible!
I only remembered the first verse of Jesus Loves Me and I didn't know there were other verses till I started singing it to my baby granddaughter. I looked it up on the web and there's more verses than you listed (the last verse is a variation of the last one you listed):
Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.
Refrain:
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me! This I know,
As He loved so long ago,
Taking children on His knee,
Saying, “Let them come to Me.â€
Refrain
Jesus loves me still today,
Walking with me on my way,
Wanting as a friend to give
Light and love to all who live.
Refrain
Jesus loves me! He who died
Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in.
Refrain
Jesus loves me! He will stay
Close beside me all the way;
Thou hast bled and died for me,
I will henceforth live for Thee.
Refrain
So I learned all the verses to sing to Dagny (she's 18 months old now). She always quiets down when I sing this one to her.
Thanks for sharing things like this. God bless you, your sister and mom!
Rhonda in Delmont, PA
That was beautiful. I am 45. I still need to know and BELIEVE the simple truth; Jesus loves me.
Melissa
Thank you for sharing your heart.I can totally relate to that feeling of being orphaned. My parents died a year apart and my relationship with them was difficult for a long time. God restored my relationship with my Mom several years before she died.The fact that he did the restoring was revealed to me during the Believing God Bible study when I had to look back at my in sections. She became my BFF and I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am for that especially after she passed. She lived here in NY with me. I am the oldest child and my siblings live in other states. I have a son that lives on the other side of the country and I never married so when she died I never felt so alone in my life. Not only did I feel alone but my own mortality hit me in the face. I was extremely depressed and non functional for a long time. The Lord rescued me. It was amazing how he did it. I don't feel alone anymore. That's not to say I don't get a little lonesome sometimes for my earthly family but I have my "ABBA"
Ginny
I just finished reading all the posts and I feel the Lord putting a prayer for my siestas on my heart.
OH Lord, you knit us together in our mothers womb so wonderfully and fearfully made. But somewhere,somehow on our journey the world takes hold of us and we suffer broken hearts, minds, and bodies and in all that hurt and pain we sometimes forget about you.
Lord you are our hope ,our refuge,and our divine healer I ask you,we ask you, please knit our broken hearts back together. Lord tear down the walls we have put up to protect them so we may receive you into them. Restore us oh Lord heal us emotionally and bodily. Renew our minds through your word. Bless us Lord that we may be a blessing to one another right here on this blog and to others that you put in our path. In the PRECIOUS NAME OF JESUS
I love this……being an adult is DEFINITELY overrated! I thought it was going to be all about freedom and living out from under authority. I could not have been more wrong!
It's been a tough and scary year in our home and many times I felt like my only comfort came from God. I found that the very things I was hoping to escape by being an adult are the exact things I need in my relationship with my Father……freedom in Him, and happily living under His authority.
Melissa – you have ministered the Body of Christ to me with this post! My Mom died when I was 22 years old and my Dad has been rather distant since he has remarried…long story for another time. I have been married to an amazing man for 25 years now. Our biggest struggle has been that I have tended to "Suck the life out of him"! (his words – not mine) Rather than being filled with the love of my Heavenly Father FIRST and being blessed in my marriage relationship after being lavished with the Father's love…I tend to do it backwards and thus "Suck the life" out of my husband. He has been patient with me – but he is a man – not THE man – Jesus Christ!
Hope that you can follow my thinking! Jeff has been so good to me – God has been so God to me through Jeff – but I am learning to place myself in God's arms and let Him minister to me and it has left me in awe of His love for me!
The God if the universe loves me – loves you – with a love that words can't describe. Prasie God that He is the source of all love and that I will never be able to exhaust or frustrate Him with my deep, huge need for His love!
Thank you for being obedient to post with such clarity the things that God places on your heart!
Blessings!
Mary Ann
Wichita Falls, Texas
I love this post, especially the Piper quote.
Thank you, Melissa!
Melissa, I'm overwhelmed with emotion. My mom is very ill and I feel like the I am becoming an orphan far too soon. I needed to remember who my Father is and reading your post today reminded me of that so clearly. Thank you and Thanks to Jesus for making me His own.
Wow! God spoke to me through your words. Even though I am a wife and a mother of 2 beautiful children God blessed me with, I sometimes feel all alone as my dad lives in another state and my mom passed 4 years ago. While visiting, this summer, we visited her grave and then I noticed that most of my family is buried in that home state (grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, sister, etc.). I wondered why I am so far away, then I read "Jesus Loves Me". He has blessed me so, living so far away from family, I have learned to depend on HIM! And, I know that even though I am so far from my family, I'll be OK because of who Jesus is and that He loves me!
Oh, I love Him so….and the Siesta's!!
I sent this wonderful well written "Oh, Yes, Jesus Loves Me." to a friend who loved it and she sent it to her large group of people she knows…..:)
Allison
So beautifully said! I too so needed to hear that right now. It is hard to know the mother's love for my boys and that I would do anything to help them and yet to know that I was not loved in that way is too much at times. Growing up and providing for myself at such a young age took away trust of others and not until I came to know Christ did I know that I am someone's child (His) and I am important. Jesus loves me. I love knowing that my Father is there to listen and care but at times I really long to hear "Good Job". Thank you for such a powerful message.
Campbell6, it's me again. I also have friends going to Southeast Asia with the IMB! I'll pray for your friends as I pray for mine.
Melissa,
Thank you for this beautiful post. God has been teaching me this very thing. It is something that I tell my mother and that she in turn tells her friends – it is just you and God. (I've always been the encourager for my mom instead of the other way around, and my dad died almost 5 years ago now.) But even though I knew that it is me and God – I really began to KNOW it and understand it when I studied Esther and thought about her as a orphan, and how that in many ways, I identify with her even though I am not orphaned. I have often felt despair because I wanted things to be different. Through studying Esther, I realized that I need not despair or wish for things to be different, but I understand that my circumstances where uniquely designed just for me, and I began to embrace this fact.
"How Great – How Great is Our God! Sing with me – How Great, How Great is our God!"
He indeed loves us beyond our scope of imagination!
Thank you, Melissa, for bringing up such a timely subject. I was just "orphaned" about 6 weeks ago when my dad passed away suddenly. My relationship with my dad was also a complicated one–I'm sure I'll be working thru lots of emotions in the coming days. Yes, Jesus loves me!
Tammy
Magnolia, TX
Melissa! In the past 2 days I have come across this scripture at least 3 times now! I LOVE when God speaks to me that way! The latest was this evening as I was on my laptop, sitting with my 4 little ones as they watched the Veggie Tales "Wizard of Ha's", I just happened to look up at the end, when they are explaining what the movie is based on, and low and behold, there it was! I really wish I had paid attention to the movie now, but I just can't wait to find out what God is telling me! Thank you for your willingness to serve Him through sharing your heart!
Much love,
Aimie Markham
Murfreesboro, TN
Melissa, I printed this and have it in my Bible. I had to be able to hold it in my hands to absorb it all. I plan to read it often. You will never know how this ministered to me.
ck
Thank you for sharing all the stanzas – I have never heard the second or third verse, and I grew up in Sunday School. I just wrote it all out to post above my kitchen sink. I want to make a painting for my babies' nursery with the words too – so good!
I'm encouraged – thank you. 🙂
Melissa, I lost my Mom in November. She had not been sick so it was such a shock ( I am glad it wasn't a shock to God). I wish I knew how many times over the last 8months I have told myself just that "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so" in all the times I have felt so hurt, sad and alone, so overwhelmed by the resposnibility of taking care of my dad through 2 extensive cancer surgeries since moms passing (which I was glad & honored to be able to do), they would have celebrated fifty years of marriage in March and it was hard for him to go through this without my mom. But through it all HE has been so faithful to me, comforting my heart and soul–YES Jesus loves ME this I know for the Bible tells ME so, Praise You Jesus!! Thanks for your post Melissa, it is wonderful. Much Love
I've tried to post a comment to this since the day you wrote it. I just can't find the right words.
My dad died when I was a baby, and after I graduated from high school, my mom took a new job and moved to a different state. I have been fiercely independent all my life, but on that day I had never felt more lost. That was until the day she died 7 years later. And still 13 years after her death there are days I just long for her.
We are indeed blessed to be called children of God. God has put many a person in my life through out the seasons to bridge the gap my mother left. When it comes down to it though, there's just no one this side of heaven like her.
God slayed me last year with Psalm 146:9 "The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked."
He was so faithful to sustain my mother a widow through her years. And He sustains me now. What an awesome God we serve.
Wow and oh wow! Thank you for this beautiful reminder of how wide and deep is God's love for us. It brought tears to me eyes and joy to my heart!
Yes, what a wonder. I am "pursuing" holy living and how befitting the timing of this post in my own personal study of holiness-what He has called us to.
Many blessings to you child of God!
In His Graces,
His Maidservant Pamela
I can not tell you what this post has meant to me. God has been speaking this same truth over me for several weeks now and when I read this I just broke down. Just now able to comment.
Hardest thing for me to say is not OH How I love Jesus, BUT….Jesus loves me this I know. May sound funny, but too me…I have always thought…he knows all, sees all, hears all..so how in the world could HE love somebody like me?
BUT HE DOES LOVE ME!!!
Thank you for confirming this in my Spirit.
He is all over my life and I am in awe.
-A.J.
Thank you so much for this post. The familial "missing links" and loneliness has been the theme in the lives of my 4 siblings and myself, this year.
We find it hard …STILL… to process the fact that our father who left us 25 years ago, continues to live within an hour of his grandkids (my nieces & nephews)… and still chooses to only be involved with the daughter from his next marriage – we suppose only because she lives with him – but who knows?
Our mom isn't exactly who she was, when we were kids… somewhere along the line, she checked out of the emotional support niche, for a life with an abusive man who never accepted his 5 "steps".
It makes it hard for some of my siblings to accept God's unconditional love, as our heavenly Father… they continue associating Him with mortal, fallible parental figures, i guess.
Even more saddening is how this has lead to the fragmentation of our family. I have a sister who is so alone, even though she lives close to two of our siblings (and our mom), and routinely "gets together for the holidays." I live a continent away, so i cannot be there physically for her. I pray for her constantly – i just want God to blow her away with His love & sufficiency.
To say the least, your blog encouraged me. I love the insight from John Piper. It was perfect. I will pass it on to my sis.
Thank you, Melissa 🙂
A Sis in Christ
My parents divorced when I was in middle school. Dad moved to the other side of the country; mom was depressed and God alone knows what else. I married in college and my husband passed away. Then I lived by myself on the outskirts of town. Invariably, I would call friends seeking companionship and nobody would be home (this was before everyone had a cell phone!) The loneliness was horrible. Eventually I moved on, remarried, matured.
The loneliness came back last year when my dad passed away. I've not lived with him in over 20years, and yet. . . still I feel orphaned, abandoned. My husband doesn't understand it, shucks, I don't understand it.
I wish so badly for someone to "mother" me, since my own mother was unable to do this. I wish so much for a "cheeerleader," like you described, someone to encourage me in my role as a mother. And in my role as a wife, too, since I didn't get that modeled by my own mother.
And yet, "Jesus loves me" is so true. I don't understand it all, and I wish i did.
"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." John 14:18 One of our sweet Jesus' most precious promises to me.
Barbra in PA
Melissa, what a profound & poignant post. Oh, yes, He does love us … despite our human ineptness. TTFN~ Marydon
35-married, but sometimes I feel I can not relate to women my age because I am not a mom. May have children someday. Sometimes wonder if there is something wrong with me-that all the responsibility of being a mother scares me-when others say that is all they have ever dreamed of being. Have noticed some of my posts on LPM seem darker than women who are mothers. I must admit I do enjoy your posts because sometimes I as a Christian woman who is not a mother yet but may be someday feel misunderstood.
hi there, Im looking for a song, part of it goes, your arms hold me so close, you lavish your love on me….
part of the chorus….hear my desperate cries filled with bitterness, mixed with helplessness
Im kind of new to the whole church thing after years away from a church that abused me as a kid,am slowly working on it with Gods help.