We are Significant to God
BUT THE VERY HAIRS OF YOUR HEAD ARE ALL NUMBERED
God’s True Love. PG 124
Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows. (Mt 10:29–31)
When Jesus told His disciples that the hairs of their heads were numbered He was not trying to inform them that God knew everything. They already believed that God knew everything. What was the Messiah trying to communicate?
Jesus was seeking to encourage His apostles in the beginning of their mission. They were about to bring the good news of the Kingdom into a society that may be hostile to them.
The majority of commentaries I have read think Jesus was saying that Father either knows about, or wills, or consents, to the death of sparrows. I am convinced that the Lord was not telling His disciples to recognize God’s knowledge or some extreme version of His sovereignty. Jesus was saying that His Father was compassionate.
Sparrows do not weaken, suffer, and die apart from Father being moved with compassion. God even cares about sparrows. He is touched with the infirmities of His creation. If Father has compassion for the suffering of comparatively worthless sparrows, then it stands to reason that He cares about the smallest thing in your life, too.
Imagine loving a child so much that when she is resting in your arms you can’t help but adoringly count each hair on her head. Such love. Such attention to detail. Your Father in heaven loves you just like that. You are to rest in His watchful care, even in the midst of life threatening circumstances.
Depending upon the color of one’s hair there are between 100,000 – 150,000 hairs on the average person’s head. It might take about twenty hours to steadily count to 100,000. That would require a lot of perseverance. You are to imagine that God loves you so much that He is doing the equivalent of a parent counting a child’s hair. Compared to vital organs in a person’s body, what is so important about hair? For us, it is this: He is concerned about the least important details of your life.
He knows about your past and, since you love Him and are called according to His purpose, is working everything out for your good. He knows every threat and is Your guard. He knows every opportunity to seek first His Kingdom and is your guide. He is not to be thought of as someone who just knows everything. Your omniscient Father is concentrating upon you.
There is coming a day when sparrows won’t fall and believers will be eternally vindicated. There will no longer be anything to weep about. Meanwhile, Father is moved with compassion when Jesus’ disciples suffer, or are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
You can count on Him for comfort and vindication.
Remember Psalm 94:9’s question? “He who made the eye, does He not see?”
How about these questions? He who gave us the capacity to work, does He not labor? He who gives us the ability to study those we love, doesn’t He study you?
If He cares about each hair, doesn’t He care about the most significant issues in your life, also?
Of course, He does. In God’s True Love, I wrote:
If Father has carefully counted the hairs on your head, then surely you can count on this: there is nothing that concerns you which is insignificant to Him.
You can count on it.
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Check out the small group curriculum, based on the book, God’s True Love!
Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers
