During the early portion of the Covid 19 pandemic, every day we were bombarded with statistics of the number of people infected, hospitalized and those who unfortunately succumbed to the infections. The authority used these statistics as yardsticks to measure the severity of the pandemic and as triggers to launch different coping strategies, including border closures and lockdowns.
Statistics translate real people into digits. Sadly. It takes us a moment of reflection to realize behind each statistic is a life – a father or mother, a son or daughter, a husband or wife, a brother or sister, or a just someone’s beloved friend. And behind every human face lies a story of the owner of that face, perhaps not known, not seen, not read of by others. But God reads it because He created it! Each human life is more than a statistic, much more!
Today, I was reading chapter 1 of the book of Matthew. This first 17 verses laboriously list a long narration of names from Abraham to Joseph marking the genealogy of Jesus. I usually skip such portions to get to the next part of the verses that dwell on more interesting narration. However, I was prompted to reflect that these names are listed because they represent significant input God had placed along the journey of His divine plan, culminating to the birth of our dear Saviour, Jesus! God sees them as worthwhile to be mentioned and as a matter of fact, God sees each and every of His creatures with worth and value. The way God looks at us is wonderfully announced by Jesus Himself in Matt 6:26 – “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
You are significant! So is the one sitting next to you in the train. There is no reason to downgrade your self-worth, neither that of another person. Riches, grades, intelligence, popularity doesn’t define a person. Neither will poverty, bad grades, disabilities or ordinariness. God has a unique plan for every life and He being so creative, very often we stand in awe at the ways He works in and around our lives. Problem is sometimes we believe and see it only from hindsight because we are not walking by faith a lot. Remember what He promised in Jer 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope”. God makes significant human beings and launches them in significant journeys in His divine plan.
Dear friends, if you are feeling lousy about yourself somehow, come to Jesus and let Him bring you to a new perspective of real value and worth of your life and that of others!