Tell Him every little thing

When is the last time you thought about sparrows? God thinks about them. Indeed, except for you birders out there, He may be the only one who has concern for those small, gray-brown, stubby-beaked, dust-bathing, song-challenged avian creatures as common as dust mites and found on every continent.

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God” (Luke 12:6, ESV).

If a sparrow is not insignificant enough, how about hair? Not a head of hair but a single hair. God has concern for that too. Not a single follicle sustains damage without his permission.

What is the smallest, most insignificant thing you can think of? If it is something even less in your sights than house sparrows and single hairs plucked from your jacket, God thinks about that too. Jesus tells us about the Father’s attention to minutia as an encouragement for you today to tell Him all that’s on your mind. Nothing is uninteresting to Him, nothing outside the scope of His sovereignty.

In fact (let us get literal), maybe there is a sparrow outside your kitchen window that is precious to you and that you like to see every morning when you pour a cup of coffee, and it has broken its little leg somehow. But you would feel silly about praying about that. Don’t. God would welcome that prayer.

Or maybe (as in my case) you are suffering hair loss. God does not think it ridiculous or petty-minded to pray about that either.

And when we pray about the minutia, it primes the pump in us to pray for everything. Open flowing channels of prayer all day long are what God wants:

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, ESV).

I would say a sea change in my prayer life has been the number and kinds of things I pray for now. I pray for people if I have a dream about them. I pray for lost keys. And yes, I pray for parking places. A man once took me from room to room in his new house and put his hands on each wall and prayed for the room and every conversation that would take place in that room. That’s what I’m talking about!

The world’s value system says humans are no more essential than animals. But as much as God loves sparrows, He considers you and every picayune concern that flits through your mind to be more important. God has a hierarchy of His created order, and you are at the top. So tell Him every little thing.

“Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:7, ESV).

A great stocking stuffer: Andrée Seu Peterson’s Won’t Let You Go Unless You Bless Me, regularly $12.95, is now available from WORLD for only $5.95.