Jesus loves me

When I first started studying theology last semester, my professor wrote in her syllabus that once you start looking for theology, you find it everywhere.  Boy was she right.  I saw the Broadway show Book of Mormon last weekend, and don't worry, I'll spare you my theological analysis of that one, but it did make my viewing experience much more rich than if I'd seen it a year ago!  Instead I'm going to share something I think about every night because I sing it almost every night as I put Baby P to bed, that seemingly timeless children's classic "Jesus Loves Me,".  You may think it's simple but once you start studying theology, you'll realize that its words can actually leave your head spinning.

"Jesus..."  Let's start with the first word - Jesus.  You may think you know who Jesus is: the Son of God, Christ, the reason for the season, the reason for Easter candy.  There are all sorts of connotations that each of you bring to your understanding of Jesus.  But theologically speaking, we believe Jesus is part of the Trinity.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all connected and work together and fully united, and yet are also separate essences.  How can three parts equal one?  Was Jesus an inspiring historical figure or actually God?  And if he was actually God was he also fully human?  And if so, how could he be both fully human and fully divine at the same time?  (Is your head spinning yet?  I'm just getting started.)

"Jesus loves me..."  I'll confess that we haven't discussed God's love for us specifically as an individual topic, at least not yet.  I'm thinking it's so fundamental to who God is that it's just a part of every conversation.  So I won't say too much here but the bottom line is, we humans and each of us individually are part of God's creation, which God declared good, and when God made humans God declared them, "very good."  I think that's the Biblical foundation for the idea that God loves us, and in some ways, the whole Bible is just a continuation of that story.

"This I know..."  Well, if you think you know anything about God or your faith, just try studying theology and you'll be soundly knocked off your feet very quickly.  But despite that, I still walk away from everything I study not wavering.  I do know that Jesus loves me.  Nothing has happened to me in my life to rock that conviction (although I can think of things that have happened to others).  So enough on that for now.

"For the Bible tells me so..."  So this isn't so much a theology question but I have touched on it in other classes.  Can we actually believe what the Bible tells us?  Should we accept it at face value and believe it literally?  Or should we learn about the historical context in which the Bible was written, who it was written by, who they were writing to, how the Bible has been interpreted throughout history, etc.  I subscribe to the later idea, so the idea of teaching young children (via this song) to believe that Jesus loves them just because the Bible says so is a little hard for me to swallow.  But I do want my children to believe in the authority of the Bible, and their young minds can only handle so much, so I'll let this one slide....for now.

So there you go.  Who knew putting a 16 month old to bed could be so theologically stimulating?!  These thoughts only scratch the surface of what I've been learning about in school, so hopefully you can understand why this space has been so silent.  But hopefully you've also been challenged to think a little deeper about your faith by reading this.  The story of God's love for creation, which this song proclaims, is so incredibly deep and so incredibly rewarding to delve into.  Drink deep friends...

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."  1 John 4: 16