Two Sparrows

What is the current price for a pair of sparrows? Isn’t it one Penney? Did you know that not even one of these two sparrows can falter, stop flying, fall to the ground apart from your Father? He keeps them flying; He lets them down to their rest gently, holding them in His arms all the way. Think about it: How much more valuable are you than two sparrows? Aren’t you worth many times more? To your Father you have infinite worth-far beyond even a flock of sparrows. Even more than a sparrow, He hold you up, supports you, carries you through life and, when the time comes, lays you gently to rest, safe in His arms for your nap. (Matt 10:29, greatly paraphrased) Trembling and fearful, we fight against the inevitability of death. Medicine, surgery, exercise, diet are all enlisted to prolong life. Charlatans and quacks prey on the gullible with life-extending promises of water from the fountain of youth. When the day finally arrives, as it always does, we go kicking and screaming into the long night. But for we who believe, there is an alternative. We need not fear death. It may be even that faith’s first test is to release us from that fear-the fear of what many believe to be the unknowable. In one dimension, He came to relieve this fear: “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil…” Hebrews 2:14. His death saps the strength of the one who claims power over death; He died the death that we might live. As age progresses, as the end looms larger, we can rest in the absolute certainty that there is life just over the horizon. Life’s tempests can lull us to sleep as did the raging waves of Galilee to our Lord. May every sparrow’s chirp be to you today an assurance of our Father’s loving watchcare; of His surrounding arms; of His knowing the way, having trod it before us. 10/30/13