SCRIPTURE: Luke 12:7 (TM)
Indeed, the very hairs of
your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many
sparrows.
STORY:
Carlene Mattson shares this personal story: The greatest
obstacle to being handicapped--or challenged, or disabled or whatever label we
may be using this year--is not the condition but the stigma society still
associates with it. The truth is we are valuable because of who we are, not
because of how we look or what we accomplish. And that applies to all of us,
the disabled and the temporarily able-bodied alike. I'm convinced God didn't
turn His back at the moment of Jeff's conception. He is still the God of
miracles, but in this instance, the one who received healing was me. Our Lord
is still in the business of changing lives, but not always in the ways we
expect.
Several years ago, Jeff played in a special Little League
for kids with disabilities. After many seasons of watching from the bleachers
and rooting while his big brother played ball, Jeff's opportunity finally
arrived. When he received his uniform, he couldn't wait to get home to put it
on. When he raced out from his bedroom, fully suited up, he announced to me,
"Mom, now I'm a real boy!" Though his words pushed my heart to my
throat, I assured him he had always been a "real boy."
OBSERVATION:
As a young person did you
ever sit and try to count the hairs on your head? Well, I did as probably you
did too. We didn’t get very far before we gave up. There were just too many and
yet God knows how many. Some of us presently are making that job a lot easier
for God to keep count.
The power of Luke’s story is
not that God keeps count of the number of hairs, but that we are that important
to him that he would know. Sometimes we lose sight of that spiritual reality.
Society tries to place a
“value” on us based on how much we earn or the stuff we possess or the position
we hold. We want to be real. Little Jeff had gotten the message that there were
certain things, like wearing a Little League baseball uniform, that could make
him feel like a “real boy.”
God’s message to us is that
we have been real from the time of our birth. It is not based on some external
reality, but on an internal truth. We have been created in God’s image, but it
is easy for that fact to get out of focus.
And if we are that real to
God, we are that important. And if we are that important then we have nothing
to fear. If God cares enough about us that he keeps track of the trivial
information, like the number of hairs on our head, certainly everything else is
higher on his list.
We are important. We matter.
We are real. We are valuable. Society will just have to deal with it!
PRAYER:
Okay God we get it. We are
important to you. It’s just all that noise which invades our mental and
emotional state that kind of drowns out that message. Help us shutoff all
messages about value and importance other than yours.
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