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A few years ago, our dog of 16 years died. My heart was grieving so deeply for the animal I had loved and cared for, like a child, for so many years. I cared about how she was doing. (Her condition for the last year of her life had been so difficult to watch.) The evening following her death, I was thinking of words the Lord had spoken to my heart, just a few months earlier, concerning His care and involvement in the lives of even the animals. I was so comforted to know that even my dearly loved pet was in God’s hands—for even a sparrow “shall not fall on the ground without [the] Father” (Matthew 10:29 KJV and IGNT). More significantly, however, immediately after remembering God’s care for Fifi, the Lord spoke His heart to me concerning my neighbors who may not know Him. He spoke: “If I care about the death of Fifi, do I not care even more about the eternal deaths of your neighbors if they do not know Me?” At that moment, the Lord affirmed to me who He is and His care for all the lost. I was to know even more His heart for the lost and to make it a priority to share. Confirming what I was thinking, I furthermore was reminded of Jesus’ words in reference to the sparrows: “[You people] are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31 NKJV). Also, during the “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus similarly had expressed the greatness of the Father’s care—even for the birds. He had spoken the following, while encouraging people not to worry about their lives: “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26 NKJV) Truly, we are all of much value to the Father. Still sadly, some might bring the debate: “Jesus was talking only to His disciples, and not to everyone, when He made an address to “you.” So sadly, some may doubt the simplicity of Jesus’ statement, noting that all of “man”—having been made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26)—are of much more value than birds. Rightly, when Jesus mentioned sparrows falling to the ground, He was addressing the disciples. According to the Luke account, when Jesus was encouraging people not to worry, but to receive from God even as the birds receive, He may have just been talking to the disciples (later for them to share). To confirm the validity that all people are worth more than many sparrows, however, note that Jesus also spoke similarly to the Pharisees one day: “Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?” (Matthew 12:12 NKJV). Furthermore, Paul’s account of the Lord’s words, as found in Colossians 1:19-20, also sheds light on God’s heart and provision: “For it pleased [eudokeo / “well pleased”][1] the Father . . . by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven having made peace through the blood of His cross” (NKJV, emphasis mine). Significantly, “all things” include the “all things . . . created through Him and for Him” (NKJV) mentioned just four verses earlier (v. 16). Surely all people—the part of His creation whom He had said were of much more value than His created sparrows, birds, and sheep—also were to be included in His provision for reconciliation. I am newly envisioned and excited about the full work of restoration for all creation that was accomplished through Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross. All God’s creation is precious to Him! Upon completion of all His creation—“it was good” (Genesis 1)! All God’s creation is His handiwork and all His works praise Him (Psalm 145:10)! The Lord would restore all of His creation back to its former glory! The Lord has never been defeated—and all the effects of sin, unto which His creation was unwillingly subjected, shall be undone! Even concerning the expectation of God’s creation, the apostle Paul declared: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:18-24 NKJV) Again, all men are as precious to God as the animals—and even more so. If God has been pleased enough to provide for animals’ freedom from the bondage handed down from Adam’s sin (Colossians 1:19-20), is it not right to think that He would equally care that all men have the opportunity to know that same freedom? Man, however, has a will and must desire to respond to the God’s initiative.  The above is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the book God’s Sovereignty and Our Responsibility: His Heart for All Men. Copyright © 2016 by Pamela K. Gourley. PlainFocus Books. Fredericksburg, VA. All rights reserved. Footnotes
[1] Bullinger, A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament, pp. 588, xiii; The Zondervan Parallel New Testament in Greek and English, p. 587. Comments are closed.
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