“Daddy, do you think God knows how we are feeling” were the words of my seven-year old son after we found our pet dog, Dallas, dead in the back yard on a September morning. It was the first time he had lost any living thing to which he had an emotional attachment. He was crying hard and didn’t know how to express his sadness. Yet, it was expressed in a profoundly common way. He wanted to know if God understood and cared that his little heart was breaking. “Yes,” I answered. “God knows exactly what you are feeling.” I wanted to cry along with him and did.
There are so many more tragic things in life than the death of a beloved pet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the feelings or emotions are any less real. And in many tragic circumstances, people ask the same question, “Does God know how we are feeling? Does He care?” Yes, He does.
It would be a cruel, insensitive, and heartless creator that didn’t care about his creation’s well-being. We have little sympathy for fathers and mothers that have no natural affection toward their own children. So also, a god that didn’t care for his creation would be no god at all. Of course, the God of the universe, the Creator and Giver of all life, cares about His creation. We’re reminded of God’s care for us in Luke 12:6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pence? and not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” In the words of Civilla D. Martin, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”
The Bible also teaches us that we can carry our burdens to God in prayer. Just as we would talk to our earthly father and let him know of our joys, aspirations, and concerns in life, so also we may approach our heavenly Father. It is the privilege of every one of his children to be able to talk to Him in prayer as Father. Galatians 4:6 declares, “And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” When we so approach our Father, we can then, as Peter tells us, cast “all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
Perhaps, however, the greatest proof that God does indeed care for us is in the love that He showed us through His Son, Jesus. Does God know what it feels like to lose someone dear to Him? Yes, he does, because God gave His only begotten Son to die on the cross. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
And Jesus, God Himself, experienced what it was like to live as a man. “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). He knows what our feelings are like when we are sad, lonely, depressed, aching, despondent, and hurting. And he cares. He also experienced those feelings. Yes, God KNOWS what and how we are feeling.
What is sad, however, is that many will not turn to God’s word as the source of true comfort. God knows each of us better than we know ourselves; so, God can tell us what we need to do to appropriately work through our strong feelings without resorting to methods and means that would only deepen our unresolved problems. God’s word has all of the answers to life’s problems and through our faith in it, we can overcome (1 John 5:4).
