Behind the Song: O How He Loves You and Me
Oh, How He Loves You and Me is a popular chorus that was very popular in churches in the 1980s and 1990s. This is one of the songs that children often learn, after Jesus Loves Me and Jesus Loves the Little Children.
Kurt Kaiser
The chorus to Oh, How He Loves You and Me was written by Kurt Kaiser, also well known for the song, Pass It On.
Kurt Kaiser was born in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois. He is an award winning songwriter of Contemporary Christian music and a member of the Gospel Hall of Fame. He has worked with many of the well known names in Christian music, including George Beverely Shea, Larnelle Harris, Joni Erickson Tada, Ethel Waters and Ernie Ford.
Kaiser said “I was 7 years old when one Sunday evening we were all gathered around the piano in the living room of our home, singing, as was our custom each week. I began having a real urge from the spirit of God to know him and to give my heart and life to Christ. My mother went with me to my bedroom, and we
knelt down by the bed and I accepted Christ into my life.”
O How He Loves You and Me became one of his most popular songs.
Often we hear a phrase that might inspire us and that seems to be the origin behind O How He Loves You and Me.
O How He Loves You and Me
Kurt Kaiser provides the following account behind the writing of this song:
“Through the years I have been in the habit of keeping my ears tuned to things that people say, a phrase that may give me an idea for a song. I’ll write it down quickly. Occasionally, I will pull these things out and look at them. One day I came across this line, “Oh how he loves you and me,” and I wrote it down. I remember very well writing it across the top of a piece of manuscript paper, and that’s all I had.”
“In 1975, I sat down to think about that phrase and the whole song quickly came to me. I could not have spent more than 10 or 15 minutes writing the whole of it. That’s how rapidly it all came, the lyrics and the melody together. I sent it off to secure a copyright. I could not believe what came back in the mail.”
“The Copyright Office in Washington said that there was not enough original lyric to
Jesus to calvary did go
His love for mankind to show
warrant the granting of a copyright. I was extremely disappointed because I knew the song was very singable. A couple of days went by and I decided to write a companion verse, or a second set of lyrics. I sent it back to Washington, and this time I got the copyright.”
The popularity of O How He Loves You and Me spread throughout the churches and eventually found it’s way into the hymnal.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, Kaiser was an instrumental part of the Christian youth movement and wrote several Christian rock musicals. He has continued to be a well known presence in the Christian music industry through the years. He is the choir director at Day Spring Baptist Church, in Waco, Texas, which he helped found.
O How He Loves You and Me is a wonderful reminder of God’s love for us.
How do you remind yourself of God’s love?
