The Jesus Loves Me House
About an hour's drive from our home is a quaint town with a lovely blue home situated on a corner lot. Funky trees made of blue glass bottles adorn the yard and bold black letters on the siding say, "Jesus Loves Me This I Know".
Every time we pass I always think, "What a neat home. I'd like to take a picture of it."
So one day I finally did.
It was Sunday and evening was coming. I'd snapped a few pics of the sign when the garage began opening. I didn't want the owner to find a creepy stranger on their lawn snapping pics so I walked down the street a ways.
An older woman appeared with a lawn mower in tow.
I knew I'd regret not hearing the story behind the sign so I walked up to her. (I recommend doing this with a smile and an unimposing walk.)
"I like the sign you have on your home. Is there a story behind it?"
She smiled back with clear, friendly, blue eyes and gray, shoulder-length hair.
"It's for my daddy," she answered. "He was on his deathbed and it was a very traumatic time for me."
She spoke of the days and nights spent by his side and how he didn't recognize her. Then, of the one moment of clarity when he looked up at something only he could see, a content smile on his face, and said, "Hi, Mama."
His mother had long since passed and it seemed he was seeing a glorious vision of her once again. Unfortunately, the lady in front of me never got to meet her grandmother.
As her father's life came to an end, the only thing she knew to do was sing the song "Jesus Loves Me" over and over.
"It helped get me through," she said. "So I put it up on my house as a memorial to my daddy."
She gets a fair amount of foot traffic passing her home and says, "One of my favorite things is to hear a group pass and they'll start singing 'Jesus Loves Me.'"
The lady had such a sweet, calm, and kind way about her.
I really enjoyed hearing her story and felt my day was especially meaningful for having met her.
Jesus Loves Me
Written by Anna B. Warner
(1st verse and refrain)
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.
End Notes
• "Jesus Loves Me" began as a poem in a novel from the 1800s. It appears in a scene where the poem is recited to a dying child in an effort to comfort and ease the child's last moments.
• My serendipitous encounter with the owner of the "Jesus Loves Me" house happened in May 2020, during the height of the covid mess. But I completely forgot about masks and disease and whatnot during my chat with this neat lady. We were just two souls connecting, learning and sharing.
• I completely forgot about this experience but it came to mind recently and wanted to be told.
I still have the other two stories I mentioned last week in the works but I don't know if they'll be posted next week. Today's story brought another one to mind from 2017 that I may post instead.
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If you enjoyed this story or it gave you good food for thought, consider adding a comment to let me know how it impacted you, big or small.
