God knows we are here and cares about us

My wife, Kathy, has some new favorite jokes. I know these are favorite jokes of hers because I have heard them more than once over the last year or two. So, when I sit in the passenger seat of my vehicle and Kathy drives, she often points at the light on the dash and says, “Look, the passenger air bag is on.”

Hmmm. Airbag. I understand.

But the joke I have recently heard more often has to do with our cuckoo clock. When the clock marks the beginning of another hour and the bird cries “cuckoo,” I have now heard Kathy say to me many times, “Listen, the clock is calling your name. Cuckoo!”

You might call such banter kidding. Maybe it is, but such jokes or kidding also express in a loving way, “I know you’re there.” There is a warmth in knowing people recognize our presence. We receive a gift when people joke with us in order to say, “I know you are there.” I also understand Kathy’s kidding and jokes to be saying to me, “I not only know you are there, but I care about you.”

Life is meant to be lived with others, in community. Americans, and perhaps especially Alaskans, might think we can face life on our own. But such thoughts of self-reliance and independence are really deception. We need others for counsel and feedback, for guidance and for correction. Perhaps most of all we need the presence of others in our lives for companionship and for love. Deep down we know we need others. In truth, everyone needs to be loved. We all need to have someone say, “I know you are there, and I care about you.”

Jesus gives us assurance of God’s daily presence in our lives. Jesus assures us that God knows who we are and what we face in our lives. In Matthew 10, Jesus says: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

In other words, God our father knows what is happening in the life of every creature. Our father cares for the birds and animals. God takes even more care in the lives of every human being. So, God knows you are there. God cares about you. When you face troubles, God tells you that “not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.”

During Lent we especially remember that God knows the trials we face. The greatest trial is our own failing, our own selfishness, our sin. So God sent his son. God’s son was tortured and executed as a common criminal. Jesus, the son of God, was abandoned for a time and suffered the pains of hell so that, as we believe in him, we not only have God’s loving presence now but also eternally in heaven. If we are with God eternally, then he knows what we face today. He knows we are here, and he cares.

As an aside, I wonder if these words of assurance from Jesus were also a joke or a form of kidding. Jesus says: “And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” I’m pretty bald these days. There were probably those listening to Jesus who share my challenge. Yes, I have fewer hairs than in days and years past, but then we have the words of Jesus. God doesn’t just know how many hairs I have. Each of my few remaining hairs are numbered. God knows which hair is No. 1, and which hair is No. 10,302.

God knows more about us than we know about ourselves. Maybe this verse is Jesus kidding with us to tell us, “Yes, I know you are there. Yes, I care.”

As we face the challenges of every day, please know that in the smallest details of life God knows what we face. God knows we are here. God cares about us and has sent his son to prove it.

Jonathan Rockey is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Palmer. Contact him at jonrock53@mtaonline.net.

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