The price of sparrows

Why God thinks YOU are awesome

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31

To clear up the price of sparrows from the quote above, the word translated as penny assarion, a Roman copper coin worth about 1/16 of a denarius (which was a day’s wage for a labourer). Going from the National minimum wage in the UK, this makes a sparrow worth about £1.80. Luke’s Gospel says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies,” so if you take the buy four get one free deal the price of a sparrow drops to £1.44.

But that makes no difference to the meaning of the passage — a sparrow is worth very little.

As for the number of hairs on your head, that depends on your hair colour:

Blondes have an average of 150,000 hairs.
Those with black or brown hair average 110,000 to 100,000 hairs.
The average redhead has 90,000.

But the passage does not say your hairs are counted, it says numbered. God knows which hair each of your hairs is, and which ones the approximately 100 hairs that fall out each day are the ones that are going to grow back.

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Oops, went off on one again*, I have this compulsion about statistics that gets in the way of things. The important thing is that sparrows were very inexpensive and you have lots and lots of hairs on your head. And God cares for sparrows, even a little bird like a sparrow is important. And you are worth more than that, much, much more. In fact God loves you so much that he made himself small enough to become human, and to suffer agonising pain and death in your place, all because he cares for you so much. The Bible says that Jesus died for all people, so if you are a person, that’s you.

No matter what sex or gender, race, class or sexuality God thinks you are absolutely awesome.

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*That’s autistic brain for you.