Approximately 10 years ago, one of the mornings of a working day, I had a rather silly message that I wanted to convey to my dad. I was about to pick up the phone to call him when one of my colleagues who knew that my dad was a very senior executive in an industry chided me for trying to disturb him for something that small. I got a bit furious and replied, He may be a senior executive, but to me, he is my dad, and I will call him whenever I want. What is our opinion about our heavenly Father? Could we disturb Him with our small cares? Or would He not be bothered even about our big cares?
There are many who do not want to accept the truth of Christianity saying 'It portrays a God who cares too much', and others have a problem stating 'It portrays a God who cares too little'.
Does God care about our small and insignificant cares?
We believe that the God who transcends from space and time, the creator of the whole universe, is our heavenly Father! At face value, it does seem atrocious to believe that such an omnipresent, omnipotent being would care for a speck of dust such as us. When Rabbi Herbert Goldstein sent Albert Einstein an urgent telegram on April 1929 asking, 'Do you believe in God?', Einstein replied, ''I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.' When Antony Flew, a very vocal atheist, was confronted with evidence from modern biology - integrated and irreducible complexity, became a deist who accepted the existence of a god who is omnipotent, intelligent, omniscient, eternal, active, and conscious. Yet, when asked if this is a deistic understanding of a god who isn't involved in human affairs, he answered with an emphatic yes. 'Why would he be bothered about what he created' was his reply. Yet, the God revealed in the Bible claims to know and care for each and every one.
Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Does God care about what the big tragedies of life that weigh us down?
Many people who have had tragedies strike them down have questioned whether God cares at all. In today's Bible reading, the disciples have the same doubt. When the storms struck their boat, and they were about to drown, they woke Jesus up and asked Him if He cares. Did they think that Jesus would someone escape, leaving them helpless to die? Let's read.
Mark 4: 35-41 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him. A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled. He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?” They were greatly afraid, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
1 Peter 5:7 says, 'Cast all your anxieties on Him because He (Jesus) cares for you'. God expects us to have the faith that when He is on the boat with us, whatever storms may strike us, it cannot drown us. God never promised a life without storms. But He sure has promised His very presence and His peace.
So, if you ask me if Jesus cares when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and song? I will reply along with the hymnist, 'O yes, He cares! I know, He cares! His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are dreary, the long nights weary, I know my Saviour cares! (Listen to the video fully if you have time)
Link to the previous article: Surely, I am not bad, right?
Link to the next article: Why have You brought me to this?
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