Tami Creamer never thought the song she wrote with Derena Bell, “I Know That My Savior Loves Me,” would be included in the new hymnbook, “Hymns — For Home and Church,” of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Creamer, who has lived all over the world with her husband LaMar Creamer and their five children, now lives in the Washington Utah East Stake. She has played the piano since she was 4 years old and composed her first song at the age of 10.
Twenty-five years ago, Creamer was asked to write a song for Primary-aged children to sing at a stake conference of her stake at the time, the Huntsville Utah Stake.
The stake Primary music chair asked that the song be about the Savior, Jesus Christ. Creamer spent a lot of time in thought and prayer, and she decided to write about one of her favorite scripture stories, 3 Nephi 17, where Christ visits the American continent and blesses the little children.
“This is such a tender story,” Creamer said. “As I started writing, I was thinking about what a beautiful place those people of Nephi were in, and how wonderful it must have been for them to see the Savior. What an amazing experience for each of them, especially the little ones, as He let them sit on His knee and blessed them and wept openly for them.”
As she was pondering, praying and writing, Creamer would look out her windows to the beautiful views around her in Utah’s Ogden Valley.
“I realized that we are in as much of a beautiful place as they were, and even though we can’t see the Savior face to face and have Him minister to us and bless us, He still does that through our loved ones. That was the basis for this song,” she wrote to the Church News.
A long time ago in a beautiful place,
Children were gathered 'round Jesus.
He blessed and taught as they felt of His love.
Each saw the tears on His face.
The love that He felt for His little ones
I know He feels for me.
I did not touch Him or sit on His knee,
Yet, Jesus is real to me.
Creamer said sometimes the words to songs come to her very fast, but this one took a lot of time because she knew that writing about the Savior had to be just right.
She felt inspired to enlist her dear friend Bell’s help to complete the lyrics. Creamer said Bell has a beautiful way of expressing things and “an amazing testimony.”
The section of Gospel Library called “About the Hymns” for this hymn says that Creamer and Bell felt impressed to teach children that even though they might not see the Savior face to face, they can have a testimony of Him and feel His love.
While continuing to write the song, Creamer told the Church News she felt the Spirit helping them during the whole process.
I know He lives!
I will follow faithfully.
My heart I give to Him.
I know that my Savior loves me.
When the song was finished, Creamer went to each ward in her stake with the stake Primary music chair, Lisa Warnes, to teach the song to the children so they would be ready to sing it in stake conference.
While teaching the song to the Primary children in the Nordic Valley Ward, Creamer said Warnes immediately paused and said, “Do you children realize how special you are? This song has been written especially for the children of the Huntsville Utah Stake to sing in stake conference. This song is so special that someday your children, and your children’s children will sing it.”
Warnes told the children she felt the song would some day be published in Church publications for children all over the world to sing. “Then you would be able to tell your descendants that this song was written just for you.”
Creamer said when she heard those words, her jaw dropped from where she was sitting at the piano. But those things came true and more.
After that stake conference in February 2001, Creamer and Bell decided to enter “I Know That My Savior Loves Me” into the Church music competition that year and it won first place. Then, it was published in the Friend magazine in 2002, sung and recorded by the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square and performed several times in general conference.
In 2015, then Primary General President Rosemary M. Wixom said about the song: “Wouldn’t it be great if every family could learn that song and sing it in their home? As they sing, they are bearing their testimony about the Savior.”
In February 2025, “I Know That My Savior Loves Me” was one of 15 songs released for the Church’s new hymnbook.
Creamer, who has 19 grandchildren, said she feels humbled and grateful to “have been an instrument in the Lord’s hands to be able to put down on paper a song that people all over the world will sing. I pray that through this song, they will be able to learn more about our Savior and His love for them.”
