Adarei Mage Jesu

I love you, my Jesus,
my life, you are, Jesus
the meaning of my life is you,
the joy of life is you,
the comfort that soothes my heart is you,
the comfort that soothes my very heart is you

Singing songs, we praise you always,
declaring that my whole life is you
When my whole life was filled with tears,
weeping and left alone, you soothed my heart
Proclaiming the glory of love,
we praise the Lord who kept me safe, always

I spend my life in joy, forever,
nestled in your love
Weakened in the darkness of sin,
weeping, without a single breath of comfort,
you lifted me up with your white hands,
we praise the Lord who kept me safe, always

I love you, my Jesus,
my Jesus, you are my Jesus,
I love you, my Jesus, mine, Jesus

This is a warm hymn of love and gratitude, the kind of song that keeps returning to the same simple confession because it cannot say it enough: “I love you, my Jesus; my life, you are.” It piles up the ways Jesus fills a life, “the meaning of my life is you, the joy of life is you, the comfort that soothes my heart is you,” until it is clear that for this singer, Jesus is not one part of life but the whole of it.

Woven through the praise is a testimony that explains why the love runs so deep. There was a time “when my whole life was filled with tears, weeping and left alone,” and it was then that “you soothed my heart.” The gratitude is not abstract; it comes from having been rescued at a real low point, so the singer can “praise the Lord who kept me safe” from firsthand experience.

The third verse makes that rescue vivid. “Weakened in the darkness of sin, weeping, without a single breath of comfort,” he was as low as a person can be, and there “you lifted me up with your white hands.” The white hands are Christ’s, pure and gentle, reaching into the darkness to raise him. Now, in place of that despair, “I spend my life in joy, forever, nestled in your love.” What the listener is left with is the glad, unashamed love of a rescued heart, one that found in Jesus its meaning, its joy and its comfort, and can only keep saying, over and over, “I love you, my Jesus.”