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Calvin Miller is a professor in preaching and pastoral ministry at Samford University's Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. He previously served as pastor of Westside Baptist Church, Omaha, Nebraska. Miller is also a poet, artist, novelist, and evangelist. He is the author of more than 40 books and numerous articles on religion and preaching. His most recent book is titled, Jesus Loves Me: Celebrating the Profound Truths of a Simple Hymn (Warner Books).

I don't think I have sung "Jesus Loves Me" for a long time. This morning I'm reading the lyrics and my eyes are tearing up.

I have had that kind of response all over. People say, "I picked up the book and I thought about how I first learned it or when the hymn came to me in a crisis moment." So I think it's a common experience. You can't feel the impact of the Son of God and his love without being emotionally moved.

What is it that drew you back to this familiar hymn?

A part of my personal journey is reflected in one of the chapter titles that says, "Jesus Loves Me: I Can Make It." I guess I've never been through any kind of crisis [except] when I've felt that the presence of Christ got me through it. And I really am big on the notion of walking with Christ through the crises of our lives. So I'm sure that had a part to play. But I was thinking one day how really basic and fundamental to our lives "Jesus Loves Me" is. We learn it first. And its little truths talk back to us for the rest of our lives. It just runs all through the hymn.

The second phrase in the song is "this I know." In an age of uncertainty, here's a hymn that says we can know certain things.

Yeah, and I think that it's a heart cry of this age and probably every age. But just to know that there's something out here that you can nail down and say, this is true, and this is the truth that will stand by me. I know this, and this won't change. I've always believed when Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" that what he's essentially saying is that he is personal truth.

A lot of factual truth appears to change, you know. It used to be 500 years ago the world was flat, and now it's round. And it's amazing that truths we think we depend on in one generation get redefined. But when Jesus said, "I'm the truth," he said this isn't going to be redefined. This will be true. It's true for every generation. I love the notion that I can count on Jesus Christ. He's going to be there in the morning; he was there last night. And I love the notion that he's steadfast.

The next phrase is, "for the Bible tells me so." And you point out that-that western civilization increasingly ignores the Bible.

You know, I like that metaphor of the exit sign. I mean, there's a lot more complicated ways to say exit, but the one that really sells is exit. It's kind of like Robert Fulghum's book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten—here I am, 65 years old, writing about a song I learned when I was five. And all of its truth still right in place.

"Little ones to him belong" is the next line of the song. You're 65 and recapturing the spirit of a little one.

Jesus essentially said, you don't become Christians by being more adult, you become Christians by being childlike. I think he meant that kids are really good at trust—and really good at faith. They're really good at believing. They're just really good at basic, simple things that a more mature adult has to wrangle about and cast all his aspersions on, you know? Kids do it so easy.

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July (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46