Sometime in the mid 1950s, my father bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder.  He taped all kinds of things – including the multiplication table and Tennessee Ernie Ford; however he seemed to get the most enjoyment in taping my sisters and I singing or simply talking.  When I was 4 or so, my father recorded me singing “Jesus Loves Me,” only it came out “Les, Jesus loves me” rather than “Yes, Jesus loves me.”  I don’t even know a Les.  The truth is I had a few speech problems back then including stuttering and being unable to pronounce certain letters.  Anyway, on that same recording I am heard singing, “He is weak but we are strong.”  Of course it is supposed to be “We are weak but He is strong” – just like it says in 1 Corinthians 1:25.  As a 4 or 5 year old, I got it wrong.  Or did I? 

Of course Jesus is strong, but he became weak in order that we might become strong.  In the second chapter of Philippians we read that Jesus emptied himself of his divinity, gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.  He became a servant, humbled himself and was fully obedient to God even to the point of dying of the cross.  He became weak.  Why?  So that he could empower us to stand strong against sin, to stand strong in faith, to live strong the new life he gave us.   Jesus became a weak human in order to make us strong humans who would faithfully serve him, follow him, love him and become like him.  We are not strong on our own; we are weak; but in his weakness and his strength, we have become strong. 

So maybe the 4 year old Donna got it right after all, even if she didn’t know it.  He became weak so that in his weakness we might become strong.  Remember Les, whoever you are, Jesus does love me and you – so much so that he became weak and died so that we can be strong and alive and faithful. 

In Christ, Pastor Donna