Love is All You Need.

Mother's Day is always a good day at our church. Our choir season always ends on Mother's Day, so we sing something fun and peppy. And it is also the end of our Sunday school year, which is fun. Usually we have treats and do a neat craft for their mothers. We also usually have our students sing in church.

And this year, I almost didn't make it through.

Our six little three- to six-year-olds stood up at the front of the church and sang If I were a Butterfly, This Little Light of Mine, Zaccheaus, and Jesus Loves Me. They did the cute little hand motions. Some of them sang, some of them didn't. And when we got to Jesus Loves Me, one of my counterparts suggested we sing it twice and on the second time, have the congregation sing along.

That song is one of the first ones we learn in Sunday school every year. It's one of the first songs I learned in Sunday school all those years ago. Usually, I'm fine. Yes, I'm an incredibly emotional person. I can't get through Climb Ev'ry Mountain without sobbing buckets of tears. There are a few hymns that get me--What Wondrous Love is This, Amazing Grace. 

But Jesus Loves Me? Forget about it, I'm fine.

Until yesterday. 

As I listened to those sweet, tiny voices sing the words with such conviction and watched their little faces shine, something started to stir inside me. When all the adults in the room began to sing with us, I felt the tears spring to my eyes. It took everything in me to steel my nerves and stop the waterworks from starting. I mean, as soon as the song was over, I was going to have to present my kiddos with certificates and stand up in front of the congregation to talk about the highlights of our year. I couldn't do that while crying! Plus, then I needed to go downstairs with those kiddos and do our last lesson of the year. 

I wasn't crying because Sunday school was over. As with everything, there comes a time when you need a break.

It was the song. That sweet, simple song with its simple words.

Jesus loves me, this I know

For the Bible tells me so

The voices singing were old and young. They were innocent and world-weary. They were male and female. But they were all saying the same thing.

Love.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. There's no need to question it. It's a simple statement. Jesus loves me. Me, of all people. Me, a person who wrestles with pride and jealousy and anger and anxiety and worry. They are weak, but He is strong. He is so strong--strong enough to love me, with all my faults. Strong enough to carry a cross on his back. Strong enough to carry what that cross represents:  the sins of the world. My sins, too. Some days they're too heavy for me to carry. Never for Him. 

And why? We talked about this in Sunday school at Easter time. Why did Jesus do what He did? Why did He die on the cross? Why did He let those people abuse and belittle Him? He is the Son of God! Why would God's son do something like that?

The answer is so simple, I want to say. You've been singing it every week at Sunday school for your entire church education.

Because He loves you. 

Love is powerful, isn't it? After all, Jesus himself declared it the  most important commandment. Love in two parts:  love for God, and love for each other. He didn't say to belittle people who are different. He didn't say to pass laws that prohibit people from doing things you or I don't agree with. He didn't say to burn crosses or drive people from their homes or ignore those who are different.

All He said to do was to love each other. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor, because every sin is equal in the eyes of the Lord. And we are all equally sinful. But how do you stop sin?

Love.

For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believed in him shall not die, but have everlasting life. -John 3:16

And now these three remain:  faith, hope, and LOVE. But the greatest of these is LOVE. -1 Corinthians 13:13

~Stay Gold.