The thing that God cares about more than anything else in this universe is people—sinful human beings like you and me. Do you remember what John 3:16 says about the motivation behind God sending His only Son into the world? Why did God send Jesus to die in our place? Because, He “...SO LOVED the world!”
Bill Hybels points out in his book, “we see this aspect of His nature—we can literally see His compassion, His great love for all people—programmed into creation itself. I say this because scientists have discovered a principle of design built in the universe that they refer to as the Anthropic Principle. And basically it says that when we look at the world around us, it would SEEM that our universe was somehow designed to support and nourish human life. For example:
< If the ratio of carbon to oxygen had been slightly different than it is, none of us would be here to breathe the air.
< Change the tilt of the earth’s axis slightly in one direction, and we would freeze. Change it the other direction and we’d burn up.
< Suppose the earth had been a bit closer or further from the sun, or just a little larger or smaller or if it rotated at a speed of any different from the one we’re spinning at right now. Given any of these changes, the resulting temperature variations would be completely fatal.
< The seasons, the water, the atmosphere, the soil, the trees,…The lesson we can draw from this Anthropic Principle is this: Someone must have gone to a lot of effort to make things just right so that people like you and me could be here to enjoy life. In short, modern science points to the fact that people matter to our Creator.
You know, the only time Jesus told three parables in a row was when He told of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. And—our Lord shared this medley of stories to illustrate this fact that lost people have infinite value to our Heavenly Father. He cares about all humanity. He stands with His arms open inviting all people into relationship with Him. So, this means when we don’t share the “good news”—when we turn our backs on people around us who obviously need to hear the Gospel- we in essence are turning our back on God who loves all people so much that He sent His only Son to Earth to “...to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Lee Strobel tells the true story of a woman who had an affair with an American soldier during the Korean war, an affair that left her pregnant. Shortly afterwards, the GI went back to the United States and she never saw him again. She gave birth to a little girl, but this little girl of course looked different than the other Korean children. For example: she had light-colored, curly hair. Well, in that culture, children of mixed race were ostracized by the community. In fact, many women would kill their children because they didn’t want them to face such rejection. But this woman didn’t do that. She tried to raise her little girl as best she could. For seven years she tried — until the rejection was too much. Then she did what nobody in this room could imagine ever doing. She abandoned her little girl to the streets where this little child was ruthlessly taunted by people. In fact, they called her the ugliest word in the Korean language, “tooki,” which means, “alien devil.” And it didn’t take long for this little girl to draw conclusions about herself based on the way people treated her. For two years she lived on the streets, until finally she made her way to an orphanage. One day, not long after she arrived word came that a couple from America was going to come adopt a little boy. All the children in the orphanage got excited because at least one child was going to have hope. One little boy was going to actually have a family. Well, this little girl spent the day cleaning up all the little boys —giving them baths and combing their hair—and dressing them in the best clothes she could find—all the time wondering which one would be chosen—which one would be adopted by the American couple. The next day finally dawned and the couple came and this is what the little girl recalled:
“The father was so big—he was like Goliath. I saw his huge hands lift up each and every baby. I knew he loved everyone of them as if they were his own because I saw tears running down his face, and I knew if they could, he and his wife would have taken the whole lot of them home with them. Then he saw me out of the corner of his eye.”
Now listen to her description of herself.
“I was nine years old, but I didn’t even weigh 30 pounds. I was a scrawny thing. I had worms in my body. I had lice in my hair. I had boils all over. I was full of scars. I was not a pretty sight. But the man came over to me, and he began rattling away something in English, and I looked up at him. Then he took his huge hand and laid it on my face and then he said, ‘I want THIS CHILD. This is the child for me.’” As the man reached out to her she said later, “The hand on my face felt so good and inside I said, ‘Oh keep that up. Don’t let your hand go.’ But nobody had ever shown that kind of affection to me before. I didn’t know how to respond. So, I yanked his hand off my face, and I looked up at him and spit on him. Then I turned around and ran away.”…Well, the couple returned the next day. They understood the suffering this little girl had gone through, the trauma she had experienced. In spite of her initial rejection of them, they went back to the little girl with lice in her hair and worms in her body and boils all over her skin. They said, “We’ve got to have this child. This is the one we want to adopt.” And they did. They got her the medical attention she needed. They loved her just like she was her own biological child. She grew up and became a follower of Jesus Christ. She got married and has her own children now and lives here in the U.S.
I share this story because the actions of this couple are a reflection of God’s attitude and actions toward each one of us. Our Heavenly Father looks at all people—and in spite of the fact that they are scarred by the ugliness of sin—in spite of the fact that they reject His love He says, “I’ve got to have that child!” And God feels this way about ALL people! Because of His great, GRACE-FILLED love - more than anything - He wants to adopt them as His sons and daughters. He has given us the task of telling this wonderful truth to the people around us who are not Christians, and if we truly love God, that’s exactly what we will do.
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