(photograph of L. O. Sanderson)

“HE LOVES ME”

“…Christ also hath loved us, and gave Himself for us…” (Eph. 5:2)

     INTRO.:  A hymn which reminds us that Christ has loved us and given Himself for us is “He Loves Me” (#696 in Hymns for Worship Revised; cf. #136 in Sacred Selections for the Church).  The text was written, under the penname of Vana R. Raye, and the tune was arranged both by Lloyd Otis Sanderson, who was born the middle of five children to James P. and Lucy Ann Hunt Sanderson on May 18, 1901, in Craighead County near Jonesboro, AR, in an old log house on the home place that his father, who was a singing teacher, had inherited.  His father belonged to the Methodist church, but his mother was a member of the church of Christ. During his time at home, the family had a…