Every Person Counts

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)

An item in our local newspaper detailed the work of Michael Trimble, a forensic archaeologist who examined the bodies recovered from the mass graves of Kurds killed by Saddam Hussein. His testimony showed the horrible cruelty of the Iraqi leaders in their attempt to control Kurdistan through terror. He and his team uncovered the remains of 301 people—60 percent of them children. He spoke of his final moments of testimony:

“I was searching for days, for my closing statement, and out of sheer dumb luck my birthday was on the 26th of November and the team gave me a flag and they all signed it. One of the women wrote two lines from a Polish poet, a Nobel laureate [Wislawa Szymborska]: ‘History counts its skeletons in round numbers. A thousand and one remains a thousand as though the one never existed.’ And that was it—I had my closing line. I said: ‘Your honor, we have not presented 300 remains to you; we’ve presented 301.’ The whole room was silent.”[i]

Powerful stuff. Saddam Hussein was probably going to be convicted anyway, but what Trimble did was remind the judges that it is not just about the numbers, but about each individual. Would the crime have been worse if it had been a thousand? Or not as bad if only 50? A dictator should be able to be convicted for ordering a single person killed.

God values the individual over the numbers. The bible certainly talks about the multitudes that followed Jesus, or the vast sea of saints before the throne in Revelation. But Jesus focused on the individuals. When a crowd jostled around him as he traveled, he still knew when one needy woman got through. When he looked out at the crowds who were following, he felt their individual pain, for they were “sheep without a shepherd.” When his disciples tried to shoo away the children because Jesus had more important things to do, (in their minds, at least), he brought them to himself and blessed them. When he was in his greatest moment of need, he assured the thief on the cross of his salvation.

Years ago, the church that I served undertook an evangelism project involving prayer and special mailings to targeted areas of town. It was, to put it mildly, a failure. Whereas we saw people get saved before this project without any intentionality on our part, we saw no one get saved from the parts of town we targeted—except one.

John had a failing marriage and did not know where to turn. He knew a couple of church members, but no one was preaching the gospel to him at the time. But one night, as he sank into desperation, he saw a vision that sent him to his knees to confess his sins and give his heart to God. The next Sunday he was in church, testifying about his salvation. Years have come and gone, and he is still on fire for God to this day.

I will always remember when we left that church to start another. He came up to me that last day and said this, “I know you were always disappointed that your evangelism campaign didn’t reach more people. But it reached me—and I sure appreciate it.”

Not only is Jesus concerned about the individual, but we should be too.