His Eye Is On The Sparrow

"Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows."

Toward the end of the 'brisk' run with my little brother tonight, I waved him on and stopped by the ever-so-familiar cornfield that I often find myself inexplicably drawn to. Sitting down behind the fringe of bushes, just out of sight, I stared up at the stars and immediately knew that God was there. It wasn't an emotional sensation, simply a feeling that Christ was saying 'Here. Now. This is where I want you.' It was rather incredible, I felt like I was experiencing unemotional emotion, devoid of the worldly glaze that has been over my heart the last several months. It was then that I immediately thought of these verses and stared out into the brilliant twilight as if for the first time. The sky was like the cashmere coat I've worn on one occasion, the horizon like a cutout with innumerable jagged edges. To think that the Lord created all of it, and not by the power of any supernatural Caterpillar or the genius of any programming language. He merely willed it all to exist. It was God's daydream, His imagination creating the most beautiful of stories. And he knows each character and detail so intimately! We as humans have not the patience, nor the dexterity, nor the eyesight to count a single fraction of the hairs on our heads, yet Christ knows them all with His eyes closed and both hands tied behind His back (or nailed to a cross)! Perhaps if we learned and acknowledged His beautiful work we would be so much more willing to trust in His grace.

The second thought, which struck me with the force of a hundred blows, was that of the eagerness God has to be with us. I was singing Hungry, a wonderful worship song, when a particular lyric jumped out at me:

Hungry I come to you for I know you satisfy
I am empty, but I know Your love does not run dry
and so I wait for You, and so I wait for You...

The last line suddenly sounded very odd to me. Wait for Him? Why are we waiting for Him? Christ stands with His loving arms outstretched at every moment of every day, He is waiting for us! What an illusion we create when we act as though it is something He must do for the people He has already given His life for. So often in worldly relationships, marriages, and friendships, when we are wronged by someone close to us, we are hurt and upset by the offense, believing that the validity of love is inversely proportional to how often we are hurt by it. But Christ- what a wonderful, beautiful, holy Father and Lover! He does not wait for us to come crawling back on hands and knees, doesn't wait to forgive until we take him to a nice restaurant or give Him what he wants. It is instantaneous and unstoppable love. We throw Him down by our sins and he jumps up, still begging and pleading for us to love Him. He sets a divine example and gives us all such a clear image: love is not never being hurt, it is learning to constantly forgive.