One in 7 Billion?

I love travelling and when I joined work I never thought it would give me an opportunity to do the same. But these days my job day takes me places. One day here, another day somewhere else, from the biggest towns to the smallest villages and I meet my colleagues from different places, different backgrounds, with different achievements, different concerns, different experiences, different stories to tell. I meet at least ten new individuals each day and may be close to a 50 in a week, but out of all of them at the end I remember only a few. Blame it on my amazing memory power, but that’s how it is. I remember those few because of their extraordinary achievement or experiences. I guess that’s the same with all of us. When we come across lots of people/things/events we remember only the extraordinary and forget the ordinary. According to Miller, the magical number is seven i.e. we can remember seven things, seven names, seven digits at a time easily. That seems to be a workable number. But imagine if you have to remember 7 Billion names, faces!

This week the world population crossed 7 Billion. We are now 7 Billion strong, each one with his/her own story. Just the other day I was thinking, “Who am I?”  I’m a part of the family to some, friend to some, acquaintance to some, colleague to some, but at the end I’m one in 7,000,000,000. I’m just another ordinary guy, just another face in the crowd, just another name among billions. But I know there is someone who knows me through and through, who has been with me every second of my life, who knows my every thought, listens to my every word, answers my every prayer, for whom I'm not just a face in the crowd, who actually made my face in His own image and likeness, who knows my name and keeps it so close to Him. He is God Almighty, my Father in Heaven - the God who created us all, not just us humans but every creature in the whole universe.  And He does so for each one of us! 

I haven’t done anything extraordinary, I don’t have any special talent or achievement, but still He knows me, He knows me by name. I spent years, months, days in ignorance, in denial but He never ignored me, He knows everything that is going on in my life. Even now I go away from Him, hurt Him but He still comes closer to me. I live my life without even thinking about Him, but He takes care of me always and says “even the hair on your head is counted.” (Mt 10:30) I have done nothing, absolutely nothing, to deserve His love, but still He loves me unconditionally, so much so that He being God, became man, came down to earth, took birth in an abandoned manger, lived like mere mortal, went through the most humiliating trial, suffered the most excruciating torture, died the most shameful death. All for me.

Deep down inside I know, when He hung on that wooden cross two thousand years ago, in front of hundreds who mocked Him, humiliated Him, tortured Him, through all the pain and agony, He said, “I do this for you. I call you by name. You are mine.(Isaiah 43:1)”

Who am I? I may be one in 7 Billion, but  Father,  I know,  I’m yours!

God Bless!