One week before our new house build was due to be starting, everything went into lockdown in our country, due to the Covid-19 pandemic around the world. One week!!! After all the waiting and all the many delays (Council consents had finally come through after 5 long months)….we were so close and yet so far from finally getting underway!

Throughout the seven-week lockdown I was just so grateful to be in a safe environment while the pandemic raged out there killing hundreds of thousands around the world, and for a roof over our head when so many were completely homeless due to their homes being destroyed by the recent Australian bush fires. They had lost everything! What a start to 2020! What did I have to complain about? People were losing their lives, their businesses, their jobs and their loved ones out there!!

But here we were, now two months since lockdown lifted, and we continued to have delay after delay with our house build. Every time the builders had given us dates for the floor to be poured and the framing to arrive, those dates kept being pushed out a week, then another week, then another week… and then we were into yet another month. The pandemic still wasn’t over yet, and at any time we could go back into lockdown, maybe even lasting for months.

Recently (one weekend in July) I started to feel quite discouraged. I had mostly been positive up until now (knowing that going down the discouragement road with my thought life never leads anywhere) but now realising we may not be in our new house before yet another Christmas, it began to dawn on me loud and clear that it will be 2021 (not just another month, but into another YEAR)! I started to feel so disappointed. It will then be TWO FULL YEARS without our own home, living out of a couple of boxes and suitcases with everything else in storage. What started out as just 8-10 months for the build, was now turning into a total guessing game. The goal posts still keep moving, being ripped out from under our feet constantly. And “hope disappointed makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12).

As I was feeling numb and not knowing what to think that afternoon, I looked out the window, and there in the tree were some sparrows chirping away and happily flitting through the branches. I love how the Holy Spirit points things out at exactly the right moment. He reminded me of the following scripture …

“Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:26-27)

His eye is on the sparrow! Even the little sparrow!

The sparrows were used in Jesus’ illustration to help the apostles understand why they didn’t need to be fearful.

Matthew 10:29-31 speaks about the two sparrows of small value and how not one of them could even fall to the ground without Jesus knowing about it. He went on to tell them – they are worth more than many sparrows! Jesus linked not being fearful in the face of adversity, to being confident that He cared for them personally.

In Jesus’ day, sparrows were used for food, but because they were a threat to the crops, they were largely viewed as pests. Sparrows were so abundant and cheap, you could get two for less than 5 cents, in modern values.

Jesus’ analogy of the sparrows makes some powerful points:

• what seems valueless to humans is important to God
• a little sparrow wouldn’t fall to the ground without Him noticing
• if He takes note of the smallest and most insignificant bird – how much more so will He be concerned about the plight of humans who have chosen to serve Him?

Throughout life, we may feel discouraged and down…but always remember that He is by our side and watches over us through it all.

Everywhere I go these days, I keep seeing sparrows, and I am reminded….

His eye is on the sparrow
Why should I feel discouraged
Why should the shadows come
Why should my heart be lonely
and long for heaven and home
When Jesus is my portion?
My constant friend is He;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me,
His eye is on the sparrow,
and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy
I sing because I’m free
For His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me

‘Let not your heart be troubled’
His tender Word I hear
And resting on His goodness
I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth
and I know He watches me
but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow,
and I know He watches me

I sing because I’m happy
I sing because I’m free
For His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me.

In Luke 12:4-7 Jesus told His followers not to fear those who can harm them because God is ultimately in control.

• God cares greatly about His followers when they experience pain and suffering
• This stems from the watchful care God has for all of His creation
• The Almighty who keeps the planets in their orbits is at the same time aware of a lowly sparrow that falls to the ground
• He cares so much for you He even knows how many hairs are on your head

“When you name Jesus as your Saviour and honour Him with your life, you need not fear anything in this world.”

• You can rest knowing God’s caring eye is watching over you
• God will provide for you, regardless of the person, relationship or situation that causes you concern
• You are the apple of God’s eye, His beloved child
• God has the amazing ability to love all of us individually
• We each are His favourite

There is nothing that is happening to you that He is not ultimately in control of.

If the Lord Almighty, who is in absolute and total control of every nanosecond of every event in the entire universe, takes the time to care for the lowly little sparrows, then how much more will He listen to, respond to, His precious sons and daughters that Jesus engraved on His palms at His crucifixion!