Heard It with My Eyes

Women tend to be obsessed with their hair more then men. I wouldn’t call myself that, but from my own observations it seems this way. Honestly, I can say I have never met someone so obsessed with hair that he/she counted it by the strand. Most people probably haven’t encountered anyone like this, yet there is one, one person who in fact counts hair. His name is Jesus.

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6,7).

Jesus is using comparison and pictures to show us how valuable we are. The enormity of this statement has been lost on me for years. I imagined God looking at my head and taking well-educated guesses or just knowing the number but nothing else. I don’t believe either of those now that I have a little girl.

When my daughter  was born she had a lot of hair on her head, more than I expected by far, and it was so dark. That was four months ago, and slowly she has been losing hair. The dark hair is falling out, and new, barely visible, blonde hair is growing in. To someone who has only seen her once or twice this development is probably of no consequence, but I am with her everyday and notice. I see where there are patches of baldness and places where the hair has stayed the same. I look at her so often; you could call it studying her because I am so crazy about her. I love her so much.

We feel  when we lose hair in the shower, perhaps see it when we vaccum, or comb our hair. But we don’t notice every one that falls. We might even think that we don’t lose that much hair because we don’t see it all come out. Now, being a parent and watching a child so closely, I understand better what Jesus was saying. This is not to say I realize when one strand of hair falls off her head because I don’t, but it is describing how close I watch her and I am human. How much more carefully must God be watching her.

What is so comforting to me about this verse is that it tells us God is attentive.

He is close to us.

Sometimes, I regard Him as far off and not personal even though I know He is. This passage tells us that He is so invovled, He is studying our heads. He is near to us and not just some of the time, like the few times when we notice hair go missing, but all of the time. God is our Heavenly Daddy, and He is fondly looking down at His children’s heads.