What Am I Worth?

As we continue in Luke 12:6, we are asked by the author to determine our standing and worth before God. I remember being in the front yard with a daughter of my neighbor and we both ran over to where a bird had fallen out of a tree and was lying on its back and breathing hard. I looked at the face of the child as she watched the bird die and how she looked up at me with a startled look, giggled and walked away. In her young mind, she saw little value in the life of that bird. I was shocked because I expected to see her to be sad and to ask me many questions related to the death of this fine feathered friend and how those questions would overlap into her young life. In my imagination I thought maybe that I would help her bury the body and somehow know in my heart that I helped a young person deal with the circle of life and the questions that come with it. But, none of that happened because the bird had no value to her.

I tell this story because this young girl is closer to the norm as Jesus talks about how common birds of the air that have little or no value to us, have great value to their creator. Jesus tells us that God does not forget one of them and finds value in them because He created them.

Jesus then tells us that God knows us so well that He even knows how many hairs that we have on our heads. When I think about that fact I realize the passage is less about the minutia of hair follicles and more about out the intimacy of our Creator.

When God tells us that He knows us intimately, it can make us uncomfortable. Having God in our hip pocket means that He must be with us all of the time and He must be paying attention to everything we do. That is not always convenient for us.

Lastly, Jesus tells us that even though God sees value in His smallest creations, we are the most important thing to Him. We know this to be true because God chose to live life on this earth as a man, not a bird.