Jesus Loves Me
A children's song that Jesus loves us, died for us and keeps us, because the Bible says so.
The words are public domain. We print a hymn only after checking it word for word against a dated old printing, and this one hasn’t been checked yet. Hymnary has it now.
“Jesus Loves Me” at HymnaryAbout this hymn
The song says that Jesus loves the singer, that he died to open heaven and wash away sin, and that he stays near to the weak and the young.
It rests on the Gospel story of Jesus welcoming little children and blessing them (Mark 10:13-16), and on the love shown on the cross (John 15:13).
It is sung in any season, often with children and at baptisms. Anna Bartlett Warner wrote the words as a poem in the novel Say and Seal (1860), which she wrote with her sister Susan.
For musicians and planners
| Words | Anna Bartlett Warner, 1860 | Public domain |
|---|---|---|
| Tune | JESUS LOVES ME · William Batchelder Bradbury, 1862 | Public domain |
Checked 2026-09-27 against hymnary.org text, tune and person pages (attribution and rights only). The words are not transcribed here yet.
Hymn numbers checked against Hymnary.org’s index of Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Full record: Hymnary.