The concept of a God who is aware and cares about everything that goes on in our lives is almost unbelievable – and, indeed to many, it is a fantasy. Of the millions of people who pray to this God every moment of every day – is it really conceivable that he can hear, far less be concerned and interested in them? How often have we heard someone say – ‘Even if there is a God – why would he be interested in me – he must have much bigger concerns on his mind.’
However, when we observe the life of Jesus – the man we believe encapsulated the very heart of this God – the One who is in essence the Eternal Father of all – we see very clearly his intimate interest in the individual. He will make major alterations to his plans to meet an immoral woman at a well, a hated tax collector hiding in a tree or a sick child in a home. And he calls many by name – Zacchaeus, Mary, Peter, and Martha to mention only four. The fact that God knows us by name is clearly revealed in the Old Testament – ‘I have called you by your name; you are Mine.’ And – ‘I have written your name on the palms of my hands.’ (Isaiah 43 and Isaiah 49).
Jesus also confirms, not only that this God knows us intimately and by name – but that he also cares passionately about us – ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father knowing it.’ And – ‘Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.’ (Jesus – Matthew 10).
The sparrow perhaps we can stretch to comprehend – but even the number of hairs on the head of every individual throughout the history of time? Yes and yes again! This is the God we worship – the one whom we also ought to stand before in total awe. He is so much greater than any comprehension we might have of him! How dare I try and diminish Him to my understanding or a mere theological concept! He is so much beyond all of that – and yet this God is a Humble God – a God who bends down to lift me up when I fall – a God who wraps me in his arms of love when I am broken and the God who is willing to enter into the mess of my life and put it back together again! He is the God who has time for us – who will wait for us – who never stops loving us and who will one day receive us into his eternal home. But the magic of it all is – we can live there now – by allowing this God who cares for us so much to embrace us into the kingdom of His love!
If one should ask what we are worshipping and adoring, the answer is ready: we are honouring love.
Gregory of Nazianzus (c329-390)
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