In English, many uses of the biblical word CARES refers to burdens, worries or anxieties. However, where Scripture says that God cares for His people, this word means “to matter to or be important to” which begs the question asked by the psalmist and repeated in the NT:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3–4)
Every now and then, particularly when I start thinking the world revolves around me, I go to the Hubble site on the Internet. There I am deeply humbled at the immensity of God’s creation and the wonder that He should care for this planet, one out of billions, and those that live here, me included. As the psalmist says . . .
I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God! (Psalm 40:17)
Knowing my relative size in His vast universe, my pride cannot remain. Yet on the other extreme of pride is that feeling of not being important, of not having any value. On those days when I slide into thinking: “There is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul” (Psalm 142:4), the same truth puts my perspective aright. God takes thought for me, a speck on a speck, a nothing in the universe yet someone for whom Christ died that I might live forever with Him. This is totally incredible!
My prideful thinking, self-pity, and all my cares and worries are covered in this truth from God’s Word:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6–7)
Another reality that blesses me is that He includes in that caring attitude everything that concerns me. As His child, He urges me to live accordingly. This was illustrated in the Old Testament with Him taking His people from bondage in Egypt and directing them to live as His unique children. He gave them laws for this unique way of life and a land “flowing with milk and honey” as a special place to live. This illustrates being set free from the bondage of sin to live a spirit-filled, abundant life. He puts His people in the world but we are not to be like the world. Instead, we are blessed in the challenges of being His ambassadors; we belong to a heavenly kingdom yet are cared for in this domain as His children.
One OT verse speaks of how God cares for this ‘place’ where we live, hinting that He not only cares about that former physical land but also the ‘land’ of NT living — the spiritual kingdom where His people live under His care in a world that often has no concern for our significance:
But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. (Deuteronomy 11:11–12)
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. My concept of the universe puts me on my face before God who placed me in it as a tiny, insignificant life -form that He cares about, even loves with an everlasting love. This is so incredible that words seem inadequate. How do I respond to a God who speaks to me through His Word and into my mind, who answers prayer and takes care of me? A God who created and sustains a universe the size of which I cannot comprehend and filled with amazing handiwork that constantly delights me? The only answer is that the glory of this caring God produces great awe and worship — even from this tiny speck who is privileged to see a glimpse of Him and to experience His incredible care!
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