“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Luke 12:6-7 (RSV)
I think we all have a tendency to underestimate God’s interest in the details of our lives. It’s hard to process Jesus saying that God knows the exact number of hairs on our heads. After all, He must be far too busy to care about small details like that.
It’s easier to believe that God cares more about getting us all into heaven, than being interested in the details of our daily lives. Yet, scripture, biology, astronomy and all of nature prove that God is very interested in the details of our daily lives.
The first five books of the Bible are filled with details of how to arrange and handle every sacred object on the altar of God’s temple; the menorah candlesticks, the holy bread of the Presence, the ark of the covenant, the curtain, incense and the various offerings. God had specific requirements about all these details, and if He cares about the details of temple worship, how much more does He care about the details of our lives, since we are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
When God decided to have Jesus become a human being, He thought out every detail of the plan. He chose to have the Son of God conceived in the womb of a woman-but not just any woman, but an unmarried Jewish virgin, and not just any virgin, but Mary, who He created with the qualities and characteristics that He wanted in the mother of His son. That alone required attention to detail.
Out of all the nations in the world to be born in, He chose a tiny land in the Middle East, no larger than the state of New Jersey. Of all the various ethnic cultures, nations, kingdoms and races on the earth, He wanted His son to be born of Hebrew lineage with a family ancestry linked to Abraham, and specifically from the tribe of Judah.
Not only did God have in mind the particular tribe, place, culture, mother, and father to raise His beloved son, but the God of details also selected His son’s name, and told Mary to name Him Jesus, – “Yeshua,” meaning salvation in Hebrew.
It was part of His detailed plan that Mary and Joseph live in a poor town of Nazareth, and raise His only son devoutly in the Jewish faith, in accordance with the writings of Moses and the prophets. He wore a prayer shawl garment with tassels at the edge, and adhered to all the prayers, customs, holidays and festival observances. God selected a culture that was full of details to raise His only son in, as if details really mattered to Him.
Dates are the other details that matter to God. The Passover lamb was to be slain on the 14th day of the month of Nissan, a spring time date on the Hebrew calendar. Historians and archeologists can verify that Jesus was crucified and died exactly on the 14th day of Nissan, or April 3, 33 A.D. He became the final Passover lamb, dying on the designated date given to His chosen people.
Regarding the many fascinating details of dates, the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 27:51-52, mentions an earthquake that shook the ground at the exact moment Jesus gave up His life on the cross.
The International Geology Review published evidence of seismic activity located 13 miles away from Jerusalem, that happened on the exact date that Jesus died. That would explain the rumbling earthquake that the gospel writers recorded, which tore the temple veil, split rocks and mysteriously opened graves.
How awesome to have science, history, geology, astronomy and scripture all correlate on the day of His crucifixion. Almighty God is in all the details, and He cares about the details of our lives as well. When I find myself thinking God wouldn’t care about some details in my life, then my thinking is too small. God is big enough to know the details of every human being on earth, and loves us enough to show us He cares.
We might as well acknowledge Him in all our ways, since He already knows all of our ways. He knows the number of hairs on our head, and all the thoughts in our mind. He knows our worries, our fears, and our deepest hopes, at every moment of the day. He is a big God, and if we can open our minds to grasp how big He is, we will discover as Jesus once said, “With God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 18:26)
Lord, thank you for caring about all details, and for the beauty of your detailed plan of salvation. As your eye is on each sparrow, your eye is also on each of us today and always. Amen
