“Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” (Luke 12:6)
People can forget us, even those who hold us most dear. “Yea, they may forget…” (Isaiah 49:15) We may not hear from them for days, or weeks, or months. We may wonder whether they care.
At times, when nothing seems to be happening, when others are experiencing what we long for, when our life is as dry as a bone, we may wonder whether God has forgotten us. Have we “slipped through the cracks?” Have we gotten “lost in the shuffle?” Has God forgotten us? The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote: “Deep within every human being there still lives the anxiety over the possibility of being alone in the world, forgotten by God, overlooked among the millions and millions in this enormous household.”
It is dangerous to believe that God is unconcerned or uninterested in our lives. Jesus assured us that the Father has every hair on our heads numbered. He’s just as involved in our lives in the dry times as He is in the exciting times. In fact, it’s during those seasons that He usually does His deepest work. He is nearest to us when we are most brokenhearted. “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)
Our faith in God’s care for us must go beyond what our eyes see. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 For. 5:7). We may not see it now, but God always has something good up His sleeve for His beloved children. Do you think you are the forgotten child in God’s big family? Do you think He has more important things to think about than you? Think again. “But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me” (Psalm 40:17) David did his soul well when he reminded himself of how much God thought of him:
“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” (Psalm 139:17,18)
Can there be any more mundane existence than that of a sparrow? How insignificant they appear in the whole big scheme of things. Surely, God has bigger concerns than the existence of one tiny sparrow. Yet, Jesus told us that the Father’s eye is on each one of them. “Not one of them is forgotten before God.” He who came to express the heart of the Father to us has assured us that we are worth more than many sparrows to our God. No matter how invisible you may be to men, know that God sees you. He is aware of your every step, and every thought. Don’t lose sight of Him.