You Are Worth More Than Many Sparrows

 When I heard the verses from the gospels of Luke (12:7) and from Matthew (10:31) about

being worth more than many sparrows, I had to chuckle.  As someone who has always

questioned her worth, I figured a sparrow was about what I was worth.  “Hey!” I thought,

“Here’s an affirmation for me to tape up on my bathroom mirror - you there, you who are

short and dumpy and not too bright, YOU are worth more than many sparrows.”  Not

peacocks or swans or pretty colorful bluebirds, but sparrows.  Dull, boring, brown birds that

no one really notices.  THAT’S what I am worth more of.  Figures.  

Why sparrows?  Why not blue jays or goldfinches or cardinals?  Those birds are at least pretty.  Why not quail or chickens or ducks?  They at least have value as food animals.  Why sparrows?  Why an ubiquitous bird that is so common that we barely notice them?  Why not flamingos or toucans or something equally as exotic?  But sparrows.  Tiny, unnoticed sparrows.  

Sparrows are the point.  We don’t pay much attention to sparrows. They are everywhere.  They all kind of look alike.  They are easily ignored. But God pays attention to them.  God sees them.  He knows all about them.  He sees us and knows all about us and further, he loves us.  He crazy loves us, the way we love our children or our spouse or our parents.  Sometimes we feel like we are worthless, invisible in the eyes of the world.  There are so many people who are like us that we go unnoticed, as one of the crowd.   We are somebody’s wife, somebody’s mother, somebody’s grandmother.  We aren’t US to the world.  The world doesn’t see the woman who works hard for her family and sacrifices for them and who does what she can to make sure they are happy and that life runs smoothly for them.  Sometimes even those close to us don’t really see us.  No one knows our innermost thoughts and hopes and dreams.  They just all see that person who is always there, without seeing the person who sometimes wishes she wasn’t.  They don’t know about the  woman who cries in the shower so that no one knows.  They don’t notice the  woman who pastes on a smile and does what needs to be done when she’d rather not.  Mostly we are just another sparrow, part of a flock of other sparrows who all sort of look alike.  Nothing special.  Nothing that makes you look twice or think about them at all.  Just part of the scenery.  

God is different.  If God pays attention to sparrows and knows all about them and cares about them, then how much more does he pay attention to you, who are worth more than many sparrows? These verses are not about you being worthless, like a sparrow, but on the contrary, they are about you being worth so much that God even knows how many hairs are on your head.  You don’t even know that.  You don’t even care enough about that to worry about counting the hairs on your head.  But God does.   He knows about your thoughts, your dreams, your feelings, both good and bad, and he CARES about them because he cares about you.  YOU.  You who are short.  And dumpy.  And so very average.  So not noticeable. You are noticed.  You are seen.  

God has known you since the beginning of time.  He knew you and he loved you and he died for you before you were even born.  Before anyone on earth had even given you a passing thought, God thought about you enough to make sure that you had what you needed for an everlasting life.  He thought about you so much and loved you so much that he was willing to die for you, centuries before you were even born.  Think about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  Think of the pain, the wounds, the derision. All of that was for you.  That shouldn’t make you feel guilty.  That should make you feel loved with an everlasting love that lets you know how much you are worth.  You are worth Jesus dying on a cross.  You are worth the Savior and Creator of the world suffering for you because of love for you.  You may feel like you are one of the crowd, one of a flock of twittering, all-alike little brown birds, but you are pretty special.  You’ve been noticed and loved and cared for daily by God.  

Maybe I’ll hear those verses differently now.  Maybe I’ll look at sparrows differently now.  They aren’t worthless because God doesn’t think they are worthless.  I am not worthless either.  I am worth more than many sparrows.  And that’s saying something!