Pennies and Sparrows…
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Luke 12:6-7
I am utterly convinced that the Almighty God, the Creator of the world, cares about the smallest details of our lives. How do I know this? Well, of course, the Bible says so; but I also know because God demonstrates it over and over.
One of the responsibilities on my job is preparing and filing the quarterly payroll tax reports. As I began working on the reports last week, I could not get the numbers to balance. I looked for hours, re-ran reports, went through numbers line by line, and could not find the outage. I left work that day so frustrated and felt I had searched everywhere that I knew to look. The next morning, on my way to work, I prayed, “God would you please let me see where the mistake is so I can balance and get the reports filed?” When I sat down at my desk and began to go through the same numbers as the day before, I saw the error and I blurted out loud, “Thank you Jesus!”
“You were never designed to walk through life carrying your burdens alone. So, whether young or old, rich, or poor, broken, or whole, every part of you and every detail of your life, is important to Him.”
Now some may say this is just coincidence or that this is too insignificant to bother our Heavenly Father. But I would beg to differ. In the passage above, Jesus taught the disciples that their worth to God was more than the sparrows – and Jesus said that God does not forget the sparrow. Jesus then went on to say that God knows the number of hairs on each head. For some of us, that is challenging work because that number can change every day! So, if we know that God cares about the smallest of creatures and He takes the time to know how much hair that we have, then you will never convince me that the details of our lives are not important to God. We belong to Him, and we are precious in God’s sight.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6 that we are to bring every situation, every prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, to God. He wants us to bring everything to Him. God does not want us to think for one minute that we are to handle the “small” things and only approach Him with the big problems of our lives. The truth is that God invites us to bring the whole shebang directly to Him.
I can imagine that some are saying, “Well I have prayed and asked God for things and he didn’t show up for me like that.” My answer would be to you that yes, I too have prayed and asked God for requests - big and small that I have yet to receive an answer. Does that mean that God does not care about some people like he does others? No. It simply means that we are to trust God and keep praying - asking and believing that He will answer our requests according to His will, and more importantly, in His perfect timing.
You were never designed to walk through life carrying your burdens alone. So, whether young or old, rich, or poor, broken, or whole, every part of you and every detail of your life, is important to Him. You matter to God.
Jesus taught the disciples that their worth to God was more than the sparrows – and Jesus said that God does not forget the sparrow. Jesus then went on to say that God knows the number of hairs on each head.