Every hair on your head is counted

Every hair on your head is counted.

Jesus of Nazareth said these words to his disciples two thousand years ago, and it is one of his most beautifully expressed insights - God is not, he tells us, the impersonal clockwinder of the deists. "Every hair on your head is counted" - I know everything about you.

God is not a Santa Claus, spying on us with a coal and toy list. He knows everything about us because he created everything, and he created us. He is more intimately connected to us than anyone else we have ever known, even our parents. He doesn't have to watch and wait for us to do naughty things, in order to prepare our Christmas coal. He already knows every flaw we have. But God is Love. He is literally love itself. The hardheartedness we may carry inside, the weariness of the world - this has no place in God. As Jesus himself says, "Behold, I make all things new." God is not only prepared to overlook every stupid thing we've ever done, he is prepared to take us well beyond it.

And take heart - even if you are not a Christian, many if not most religions say the same! The scriptures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all tell us that God is not always a partisan to the rich, the powerful, or the well off. Indeed, He is friend to the poor, the innocent, the downtrodden. In the stories these traditions give us, God leads slaves out of Egypt and makes a great kingdom of them; He lets a young boy with a sling defeat an unstoppable Philistine invader; he raises from the dead the son of an impoverished widow (through the prophet Elijah) and stretches her one day supply of bread baking supplies for two years!

These words that follow are my hope - they are the beatitudes; and the hope of all Christians is founded on them - can there be a God when the world we live in seems to be full of such unnecessary suffering? Absolutely, yes there can! Because as much as God lets us have reign over our lives (even to our own despair), we do not have reign over our souls - and a good thing that is. In falling before him, broken, we are raised up beyond where our own feeble limbs have the power to bring us;

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.