“Not a sparrow falls without your Father knowing it. Even the hairs on your head are all counted.” (Jesus, trying very hard to teach us that God cares for us and we can live without fear.)

Under the heading of things that you learn as a child and then keep on the shelf for sixty years, I never really thought deeply about the hairs on my head being counted. I kept it filed under things you know if you happen to be omniscient. As in, you and God are at a party and someone asks, “How many hairs are on Jim’s head?” and God quickly answers, “126,422. Not too many in the crown area though.” And, everyone is amazed that the Creator apparently has the correct number for over seven billion people. I Told you I hadn’t thought deeply about this.

(Random thought: since there are over seven billion people on the planet and, per google, there are between ninety thousand and one hundred and fifty thousand hairs on the human head, the math would imply that there are thousands of people that have the exact same number of hairs on their head as I do. That never occurred to me. I wish there was some way I could nod at them or give them thumbs up when I pass them at Walmart. Now back to the original point.)

Turns out I had this particular quote by Jesus filed in the wrong place. Jesus’ point is not that God knows everything. Jesus’ point is that God cares about everything. When crisis comes, our fear doesn’t lessen because we believe God knows stuff. It lessens because we believe that God loves us and cares about what happens to us. Think about it. When you are in the ER, it’s comforting to believe that your care giver has a lot of medical information but what really calms you down is when they show you that they care. Jesus wants us to know that God cares. God is paying attention.

I love my wife dearly but when we were separated at the grocery store the other day, I couldn’t remember what color sweater she was wearing. I hadn’t bothered to pay attention. On the other hand, per Jesus, God knows how many hairs are on her head and he knows this not because he is all knowing but because he bothered to count them.

Like I said, I have known about God counting hairs since I was a little boy but this isn’t little boy stuff. The context for Jesus is that there is scary, hurtful stuff in the world and it will likely come our way, but we don’t have to succumb to fear because God is with us and knows what is going on.

Again, don’t miss the point. Jesus is not saying there aren’t things that are fearful. There are. There are tragic things, horrific things, and heart rending things. Even Jesus, in the midst of a torturous death cried out that God had forsaken him. But those weren’t the last words from the cross. His last words were words of trust and commitment. “Into your hands…” He was not afraid.

He was not afraid because he believed that very day birds all over the globe had breathed their last and God was present. He was not afraid because he believed that the God who cares about everything, down to the last hair follicle, would see him through.

That was true then for him. It is true now for us.