As I write this, most of the leaves have fallen from the trees. The late afternoon sun casts shadows on the front lawn of the church. The night will be crisp and cold. The Church Year draws to a close, a new season of Advent begins. This Advent Season we will consider God’s love in our midweek worship services. The theme comes from the well-loved children’s hymn, “God Loves Me Dearly.”
This hymn was originally written in 1852 by a pastor who was working with homeless and disadvantaged children. It delights in the personal nature of our heavenly Father’s love—“He loves even me.” Because of our inherited sin and our own sinful choices, we were “in slavery, death, and darkness” but “God’s love was working To make me free.”
1 John 4:9 says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” Jesus was born to save us from our sins. Jesus “paid all I owed” through His birth, suffering, death, and resurrection and “set me free.” Because of Jesus, God’s Son, coming to save us, everyone can joyfully say, “God loves me dearly, Loves even me.”
Pastor Coons
Lutheran Church of our Redeemer 