Bringing Him All

Morning routine. It’s always chaos. When we find ourselves with five minutes until we have to leave, forget putting away laundry or finishing last night’s dishes. Make sure everyone is dressed, wiggle some shoes on, toss each kid a few muffins, and get in the van. 

Regardless of our season in life, living in the restraint of a finite world means we have to judge priorities all the time. From morning to night, we simply do not have enough capacity to care about all the things that need attention in the fleeting moments of our day.

But over and over again in Scripture, we see that God does. He sees all, he sustains all, and he cares for all.

When Jesus took on flesh and became a man, he quickly became famous for his healing. 

“And he went throughout all Galilee… healing every disease and every affliction among the people… they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them” (Matthew 4:24, emphasis added). 

If all means all, then it includes the “big things” like demonic oppression, seizures and paralysis. And it also includes the “little things” in various diseases and pains, like a persistent cough, a scrape on the knee, a sprained ankle. 

Two thousand years later, do we still believe that this same God is Lord of all? Or are we tempted to believe that his compassion and power run out on the “important things”?

Sometimes we believe that we can only bring the cancer and international job opportunity to God. Meanwhile, we need to figure out the relational strain or a child’s declining grades on our own. 

Sometimes “should” ourselves, convincing ourselves that we shouldn’t pray about our car that needs repair because we should just be thankful we have one. Or we shouldn’t pray about our child’s fever, because we should just be thankful we can give him medicine. 

However it’s spun, the pressure we put on ourselves to handle things pushes us away from God. It pushes us away from His presence. But away from him is never where God wants us to be.

He cares so deeply for us.

In the infamous passage, John 3:16 offers, “whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Whoever. Christ died to save us all. He didn’t come only for the religious elite, only for the most impoverished, or only for the greatest influencers. He came to rescue every single one of us, because every single one of us matter to him.  

Our inexhaustible, Creator God initiated this temporary world on purpose. From the stars to the grass to the very people he made to bear his image, He cares for it all. He grieves the cancer and has compassion over the scratches and bruises. He doesn’t have to make a judgment call over what matters most or what he has time for, because his capacity has no limits. 

He’s never too busy for us. 

He always is delighted to care for us, delighted to provide, and delighted to commune. To know us, and to be known by us. And he welcomes, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Come to him, all. There is plenty of room.

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Look up to the heavens.
Who created the stars?
He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name.
Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.
O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles?…
The Lord is an everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. 
He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
– Isaiah 40:26-28 NLT

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” – Jeremiah 32:27

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9