The Sparrows and the Subatomic Particles

   

 I’ll be honest: My life is good. I’m not trying to boast or anything. I’m just saying that not very many terrible things have happened to me. (And I am glad of that).

    Here’s some proof. I’ve been in several small Bible study groups. In some of them, the time I dreaded most was prayer request time. After the rest of the group members had told their legitimately sad stories about break-ups, family troubles, or friends with cancer, I felt a little awkward bringing up the conviction I felt reading the book of Leviticus last week. In short. I felt my problems were too small for God to care about. Maybe I’m the only one who has ever felt this way. But I assume I’m not.

     In my research, I’ve come across two passages that I feel speak to my feelings of self-pity over having nothing worth pitying. (Oh, my illogical human emotions.)  The first one is in a passage where Jesus is addressing the sin of worry. He says: “ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ” (Matthew 6:26, NKJV). This tells us how foolish it is to worry when our God is so great. It also reveals to us another aspect of the character of God. He cares for the smallest things. Birds are nice and all, but in the grand scheme of the history of the universe, they don’t seem all that important. You would think that God would leave them to take care of themselves, but that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says that He sees to it that they are taken care of. It’s a bit mind-boggling. But I’m not done with mind-bogglingness yet. I haven’t even got into particle physics!

    The second passage that applies to my non-issue issue is a verse I’ve come to claim as a sort of life verse. It is Colossians 1:17, “ And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (NKJV). It is short and sweet and simple, and yet immensely and ineffably deep and meaningful. It starts me thinking on the makeup of all matter. God is the originator of the atoms that make up everything and the subatomic particles that make those up. He holds all things together, even the smallest, most basic and fundamental units of the universe. The ingredients of matter that we can’t even begin to see, over half of which we probably haven’t discovered yet.

    I’m guessing that none of our prayer requests are so small that physicists can only theorize over their existence. Even if they did, God would still take interest in them. Now, I’m not saying we should throw ourselves a pity-party for our small problems; I’m saying that God wants us to bring those problems to Him. We’re not supposed to go through lives relying on our own strength. We have to rely on Him. In everything.

 

    So, if you find yourself feeling that God doesn’t have time for something you are bringing before Him in prayer, remember that He has time for the sparrows.

    And the subatomic particles.

Keep on glowing in the dark,
Elora