HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 18, 2025 – When Jesus says that God knows us so intimately, he even knows the number of hairs on our head, Jesus does in fact mean that God knows the actual number of hairs on our head. It wasn’t a figure of speech. God knows everything there is to know about us, and he knows it in real time, not as something written about in a report that he’ll skim through when he gets a minute. God knows everything about us, inside and out, here and now, and he also knows everything about us as we were and as we are yet to be.

If you genuinely grasp the magnitude of the miracle of God’s knowledge of us, then you’ll get what Jesus means when he says: “Where is your faith?” Because you’ll understand the pervasiveness of God’s presence with you, whether you’re awake or asleep, whether you’re aware of him or not. And in understanding that God is so pervasively with you and in you and all around you, you’ll have zero reason to be afraid or intimidated or even slightly worried about anything at any time. You’ll be totally unflappable, like Jesus was. In perpetually walking with God and talking with God (“pray without ceasing!”), and by consulting him on everything and following his lead, your only concern will be doing God’s will. That is your full job description – do God’s will. Everything in your life falls within it.

If God knows us so miraculously that he even knows the exact number of hairs on our head, then we can fully trust his absolute power. We can trust him in everything and all the time, regardless of what’s in front of us (especially regardless of what’s in front of us). When the boat was rocking and heaving in the storm, Jesus slept soundly. The disciples were terrified and rushed to wake Jesus, begging him to save them. But his only words upon waking and seeing their terrified faces were “Where is your faith?”, and then he calmly stilled the storm.

We’ve all had our moments of terror like the disciples, forgetting God’s miraculous reach, and in so doing revealing our lack of faith. There is not one instance in the gospels where Jesus displays so much as a minor degree of fear or intimidation. Even when his entire village is chasing him in a rage, vowing to stone him to death, Jesus calmly walks through the midst of them and escapes unscathed. How was he able to do that? The same way we’re able to do it: By consulting God in real time and doing precisely as God advises. In so doing, Jesus stayed deep within God’s miraculous reach and protection, a protection that we, as God’s children, also have but which we sometimes forget we have and so put ourselves under unnecessary stress and strain.

We have no reason to feel any stress or strain as children of God. If we’re stressed and strained, it’s an indicator that we’re not following God’s lead, which likely means that we’re not consulting God. Trials we’ll have, and tests galore (they’ll continue non-stop to our final breath, like with Jesus), but these situations are not meant to stress or strain us. They’re meant to teach us and guide us and in some cases deliver our due punishment. There’s no avoiding them and so we need to accept and endure them. But if we trust God and have the unflappable faith of Jesus (which is within our grasp as born-again believers), we’ll remain calm no matter what’s thrown at us.

Now here comes the part that’s likely going to ruffle a few feathers. Women, being more emotion-driven than men, have a more difficult time remaining calm and unflappable than men. I’m not making excuses here; just stating a fact. And because women are more emotion-driven than men, they’re more prone to experiencing stress and strain than men. They’re also more biased, more easily triggered, more easily offended, and more likely to react against the offense to their detriment.

Does this mean that women get a pass on remaining calm under pressure? Not at all. It just means that women, being emotionally hardwired differently than men, need to remember always and in every circumstance to put themselves fully into God’s hands, especially when they feel their emotions rise. If women put themselves fully into God’s hands, they won’t fall into the emotion-triggered traps set for them by the devil and permitted by God. Men, too, need to remember to put themselves fully into God’s hands, but women even more so, because of their emotions.

You can lay your feathers back down now, ladies. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

And speaking of feathers, God knows all of ours thoroughly, just like he knows all our hairs and what triggers us and what tickles us. There’s nothing about us that God doesn’t know, and yet he still loves us with a fervour and singlemindedness that we cannot fathom, being incapable of such love ourselves. And there, more than anything else, is the reason why we, too, can be unflappable like Jesus – because of God’s perfect love for us. He not only knows everything about us and is always with us, perfectly guiding and perfectly protecting us, he’s with us in love – he’s in love with us – and so wants only the best outcome for us, always and forever.

I’d be lying if I said I’ve achieved the faith and unflappableness of Jesus, but I’m aiming for it. I’m aiming for it knowing that God has made it well within my reach, as long as I do his will.