You Can Count on Him

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet without your Father’s knowledge not one of them can fall to the ground. As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than any number of sparrows.”[1]

God knows every random bird that “falls to the ground” or perishes, all over the world. That’s what Jesus said.

God knows how many hairs are on a person’s head. In fact, this applies to every person.

A 1951 estimate by an ornithologist estimated the worldwide bird population at “more than 100 billion individual wild birds in the world…”[2] That is 100,000,000,000 estimated. That is about fourteen birds for every human being. If 150,000 people die each day, then the number of birds that die every day would be 2,100,000. That is nearly 100,000 birds an hour “falling to the ground.” Over 16,000 a minute.  Over 270 birds die each second. Yet Jesus says “without your Father’s knowledge not one of them can fall to the ground.”

We’re talking an enormous knowledge base. An unfathomable ability to process information. Talk about attention to detail! Not one of them is missed. He is aware.

“… even the hairs of your head have all been counted.” Estimates of how many hairs are on a human head range from about 100,000 to 150,000. That is for one person. I am not sure a count has ever been done that exactly numbers even one head of hair.  Another factor is that about 100 hairs fall out per day, on average. The number keeps varying. So take the conservative estimate of 100 K hairs. Now multiply that times the number of people on earth, which is 7 billion. That number must come out to 7,000,000,000,000,000. If decades old, cob-web encrusted math is correct. That’s a lot of strands of hair. God has counted them. At any given time, he knows the number on my head, and on yours.

Why?

Why is he aware of every one of the 1000 birds that have died as I have written this sentence? Why does he know how many hairs are on the head of the proprietor of the Loop Plumbing Company in Mobile, Alabama?

Firstly there's the theological answer that God is omniscient, He knows all. He is capable of doing it and he does it. Secondly, and closer to our hearts, the best answer I can come up with is that He cares. He just plain cares. The things he's made matter to Him. They have value. This counting of impossibly high numbers of items, this awareness of innumerable happenings, is simply a manifestation of the fact that God cares. 

Birds have value. You have more value. “You are worth more than any number of sparrows.”

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[1] Matthew 10:29-30

[2] The Audubon Encyclopedia of North American Birds