How Can God Care about Me Individually When There Are So Many People in the World?

Sometimes we can take for granted Scripture’s promise that God cares for each of His children personally. Today, Sinclair Ferguson reminds us of the wonder of being known and loved by the Creator of the universe.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: We’re recording live this week from Ligonier’s 2023 National Conference, and we’re joined by Sinclair Ferguson. Dr. Ferguson is one of our teaching fellows at Ligonier. Dr. Ferguson, how can God care about each of us individually when the world is so big and there’s so many people here?

DR. SINCLAIR FERGUSON: How can God care for each of us individually? I wouldn’t be surprised that many people who are listening may think, “I remember asking that question when I was seven.” You know, children ask the right questions often, and then we can get a bit blasé. And I think one of the things that happens when we are blasé is that we actually begin to reduce God by just assuming, “Well, of course He’s looking after me.” But when we think about it, what an amazing promise this is in Scripture that He has actually numbered the hairs of our heads, that not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him knowing it. And the basic answer to the question, “How is that possible?” is, “Because He’s God.” He really is, and He is such a God.

And when we think about the creation of the world, when we actually think that, from one point of view, we know so much more about the creation of the world than Moses did when he wrote Genesis 1–2 because we have a sense of just the vastness of it and the detail of it.

I had the privilege a few years ago in the Far East of being taken, I think it was scuba diving. I was frightened to death of going under the water, but I saw under the water things I’d never seen before, and I thought, “This is absolutely amazing that before people started doing the scuba diving, they did not even know that these creatures were there, that a God who can create all of this,” which, again, is why the Scriptures, and especially the Psalms—and you see this in Isaiah, you see it towards the end of the book of Job, when Job is taken outside and God says: “Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Where were you when I made that?” And one of the things that’s happening to Job is that he has kind of belittled God, and God is saying to him: “Job, you’ve reduced Me to your size. You think My ways and My plans are going to be kind of man-sized. But when you see this, then you begin to understand My greatness and majesty.”

And I think when that happens, when you look at the created order, as the Old Testament urges us to do, as the Psalms do, as clearly Jesus did (He reflected on, a great deal, on the created order), we see a couple of things. One is the sheer majesty, the greatness of God. And the other thing we see is the almost infinitely small detail of God’s interest in His creatures. And so, the answer to the question is always: “Look at what I’ve done. Take that in and absorb it, and you’ll understand how vast is My care.”

We live in a very beautiful part of Scotland, and I often just stand and look at the beauty of the river, the valley, the mountains that surround us, and I think, “I haven’t begun to take in intellectually or emotionally the beauty of what I’m looking at.” You know, it’s as though there are blinkers on my eyes. And I think that can also be true in this area as well. It is as plain as the noses in our face that God is such a God that He’s able to sustain this whole world, to create its details. And if He is that kind of God—and this is the argument that Jesus uses, isn’t it, in the Sermon on the Mount—if He is that kind of God, then you should be left in no doubt that He knows where you are. You know, “find Waldo” may be a problem, but it’s not a problem for God; He knows exactly where you are. And so many of the longer narratives of Scripture, I think, give us real encouragement to understand that.

The other weekend, I was preaching on Joseph and the Joseph story, and he must have felt: “Where is God’s interest in me? Does He even know where I am? And why is He so slow?” But the narrative makes it clear to us that God knows exactly where you are, and He’s always on time. And although you may not yet see that in your own life, these portions of Scripture help us to understand, “What was true there in that big picture is also true of my life too.” And we can have no doubt that He not only knows where I am, but He is with me where I am.