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我上高中的时候，我父亲因癌症去世了。对我来说，那是一段非常可怕和孤独的时期。我有很多关于神和死亡的问题。我那时只有14岁，神怎么能带走我父亲呢？祂怎么能让一个爱人、慷慨分享福音的牧师遭受痛苦和死亡呢？我对神感到愤怒，并确信祂并不关心我。这些感觉让我充满了很多无望和惧怕。

耶稣与祂的门徒交谈时，谈到了一些我14岁时提出的问题。祂谈到了麻雀——一种常见的、价格低廉的鸟。耶稣向祂的门徒保证，如果神关心它们——是的，祂确实关心！那么神当然更关心我们每一个人。因此，耶稣提醒祂的门徒，“不要害怕……”

祂说，我们不应该害怕这个世界上任何可能伤害我们的人或事，我们唯一应该害怕的是神自己。毕竟，神把我们生命的方方面面都掌握在祂的手中。这可能看起来很吓人，但归根结底，神的掌管总是伴随着祂的看顾，所以我们不需要害怕祂会忘记我们。神对我们的爱比我们所能想像的还要大。无论发生什么事，神都爱我们，且因着这种爱呼召我们敬拜和尊崇祂。

When I was in high school, my dad died of cancer. That was a very frightening and lonely time for me. I had lots of questions about God and death. How could God take away my dad when I was only 14? How could he let someone who was a pastor who loved people and freely shared the gospel suffer and die? I was angry with God and was sure that he didn’t care about me. Those feelings filled me with a lot of hopelessness and fear.

As Jesus talks to his disciples, he addresses some of the same questions I had when I was 14. He talks about sparrows—a common and inexpensive bird. Jesus assures his followers that if God cares about them—and, yes, he does!—then of course God cares much more about each one of us. So Jesus reminds his disciples, “Do not be afraid. . . .”

Instead of fearing anyone or anything on this earth that might hurt us, he says, the only one we should fear is God himself. After all, God holds every part of our lives in his hands. That might seem frightening, but in the end, when God’s control is paired with his care for us, we don’t need to be afraid that God will forget about us. God’s love for us is greater than we can imagine. No matter what happens, God loves us and calls us to worship and adore him because of that love.