Does God Care About My Little Stuff?

Linda and I sat in our living room this morning praying together. We were asking the Lord for good weather next Sunday for the Chicago Marathon and his help and guidance with our upcoming trip to Israel, among a few other personal concerns.Then we began to pray for our brothers and sisters in Kobani, Syria, the Kurdish city just captured by Isis whose Christian population are in serious threat of mass killings and torture. We prayed also for little girls in third world countries who are tasked with the daily responsibility of hiking miles to the nearest watering hole, and then lugging jugs of discolored water home in order to supply their families.As we were making these requests, I started feeling guilty praying for good weather for us to run a marathon, and safe travels for a glorified vacation. With everything else going on in the world, should I really concern God with my “little stuff?" I mean, how can I pray in the same breath for God to protect kids from being beheaded by evil people and me to have a more comfortable flight? What a contrast!Linda and I both became overwhelmed with the blessings we have in life. We have a comfortable home, reliable vehicles, healthy adult kids and a beautiful grandchild. We never really have to fear for our safety. We thank God for our food every day but we never have to pray for something to eat. Our challenges are so small compared to people who live in other parts of the world.Does God care about my little stuff?He does care about the believers under threat in Iraq and Syria. He is concerned about the bacteria infested water thousands of people drink and cook with. And he wants us to care about those things as well…care to the point of doing what we can about them, in fact.And still, Jesus reminded us that it matters to him how many hairs we have on our heads. That was a clever hyperbole to insist that while the big things are important to God, the little things regarding his children are as well.So we pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who are facing martyrdom. And we not only pray for the kids who desperately need accessible clean water, we involve ourselves in working to raise money to alleviate the problem.But we also go to God about the little things that matter to us. Because he is our heavenly dad, and because he loves us and loves to provide for us and meet our wants and needs, we go to him about everything.And even when it comes to the small stuff, he loves to listen and respond.