Father, open my heart to feel Your presence in those I encounter today; to feel Your love for me. Amen.
Reflection
Being “follically-challenged”, as the saying goes, I almost always chuckle when I read Matthew 10:24-33. Do you know how many hairs are on your head? What about the hairs on your son or daughter’s head; on your spouse’s head? While it probably wouldn’t be very hard to count the number of hairs on my own head, I would definitely get lost counting the hairs on most people. For the purpose of this reflection, let’s throw out a conservative (?) estimate of 450 hairs per head.
According to the US Census Bureau’s latest estimate, there are 6, 930,000,000 people inhabiting planet earth. And, 450 x 6,930,000,000 equals…well…a pretty big number!
In Matthew, Jesus tells us that God knows how many hairs are on each of our heads—and, not only those, but the number of hairs, feathers, spines…on each and every one of God’s other creatures!
Of course, Jesus’ point is not really to astound us with numbers. To have God know the number of hairs on my head means that God knows my every thought, my every fear, my every sorrow, and my every joy. No one—even those who know me well—will ever know me that well—AND love me for who I am, other than God.
God holds each of us in His heart, we are each surrounded by His personal love—you, me, and each of the 6,930,000,000 people who inhabit earth. That’s a humbling thought!
Does having God love and know us so mean that we will know only happiness, that only good things will happen to us, or that our lives will be without sorrow or suffering? No—though sometimes we might wish it—it does not. Jesus doesn’t say that God will keep the sparrow from falling; rather, he says that no sparrow will fall without our Father’s knowledge.
No, God never promised that we would escape suffering. Just like the sparrows, we too will fall. All of us, at one time or another, will know sorrow. However, God does tell us that we will NEVER be alone! No matter how alone, distraught, or frightened we might feel, God is there—God’s love for us is greater than anything that can happen to us. Life will hand us what life hands us—joy, tears, love, and sorrow; but God is there with us—laughing, crying, and holding us close.
God is not only with us in Person, but in those He places in our path; through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit we see them every day—the man or woman who holds the door open for us until we’ve entered the building, the person who comes up with that three cents that we’re short at the grocery store. We have only to recognize our Lord in them.
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