Every Hair Numbered

"But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows."

Fear likes to do math. It counts how many people are ahead of you on the list. It measures how big the world is, and how easily one life disappears inside it. By the end, it has convinced you that nobody is keeping track of you.

So look at who Jesus said this to, and when. He calls them "my friends," and in this same talk He warns them that they will be brought "unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers." Two verses earlier, He has told them who they should really fear. So this is a word spoken into danger, to people who would need it. Into that moment He brings a picture from the market: "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?" Sparrows were about the cheapest thing for sale. Then He goes smaller still, to a number nobody has ever needed to know: how many hairs are on your head. That number changes for every one of us every day, and God knows it. His argument runs from small to smaller, and then it lands on you. If God keeps track of all that, He is keeping track of you.

Father, the math starts before I am properly awake, and it gets the same answer every time: that I am one of a great many, and easily lost in the count. You keep count of sparrows that were sold for pennies. You keep count of the hairs left in my comb. I am not asking You tonight to change the number I am afraid of. I am asking to hear Your number louder than mine. Amen.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 289 is They Know Not (Luke 23:34).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna