God Is the God of All
God, who created all, cares for all, and everyone is under His concern and care.
Once, I reflected on the subject of Noah’s Ark and found in it some wonderful things: in it was the brave, strong lion, and in it was the timid, weak rabbit. The huge elephant was there, and the simple mouse was there. The eagle, king of the birds, was there, and the weak dove was there. They all entered the Ark, and they were all saved from the Flood. The Ark symbolizes the Church or the Kingdom. It contains those who are saved. God desires that everyone should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. All of this shows us God’s concern for everyone, the great and the small.
In the assembly of the redeemed or the saved, we find:
The person chosen from his mother’s womb, such as John the Baptist, Jeremiah the prophet, and Saul of Tarsus, who said about himself: “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace… to preach Him among the nations” [Galatians 1:15–16]. Alongside these chosen from their mothers’ wombs, we also find those who came to the Lord at the end of their lives, such as the repentant thief who received salvation in the last hour of his life, as well as those of the eleventh hour whom the Lord accepted to Himself.
In the Kingdom we also find men of contemplation and solitude: monks, hermits, and solitaries, entering the Kingdom together with those who spend the whole day in service, such as the Apostle Paul throughout all his journeys and travels. We see in the Kingdom Mary and Martha: Mary, who symbolizes contemplation, and Martha, who symbolizes service. We also see in the Kingdom the married and the virgins, as on the Mount of Transfiguration the Lord Christ was surrounded by Elijah the virgin and Moses the married man. This is because God wants to open the way for everyone so that each person may be able to enter the Kingdom, just as many kinds of creatures entered the Ark. We see in the Kingdom a person with astonishing faith like Elijah, and people with simple faith like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of the seeds.
We find in the Kingdom leaders and people, apostles and tax collectors. The Kingdom is like the net that is cast into the sea and gathers every kind and form.
We find in the Kingdom the educated Apostle Paul, to whom the governor said: “Much learning is driving you mad, Paul” [Acts 26:24]. Paul, who was educated at the feet of Gamaliel and graduated from the University of Tarsus, together with Peter and John, of whom it was said that they were uneducated and ordinary men, as well as many of the ignorant, despised, and insignificant people of the world. God opens the way for everyone, the ignorant and the educated, each according to his ability. He opens the Kingdom to a person like Moses the prophet, who had faith that enabled him to strike the sea with his staff so that it would be divided before him. And with him enters the Kingdom Thomas the doubter.
In the Kingdom we find Ruth the Moabite and Rahab the harlot; they enter together with Esther, who was the most beautiful woman of her time. Alongside her beauty, women with no appearance or beauty entered. Solomon enters the Kingdom in all his glory as a great king. Nehemiah also enters, who served in the palace of Artaxerxes, king of Persia. The Kingdom includes the perfect, of whom it was said that they lived in relative perfection and that God testified to their perfection. At the same time, the maimed, the lame, and the blind enter—the poor people who were gathered from the streets and brought into the wedding while having no talents.
Methuselah enters the Kingdom, the oldest man who lived in the world (969 years). The child Abanoub enters with him, and the child Cyriacus, son of Julitta.
Jacob enters the Kingdom, he who was afraid of his brother Esau, who prayed and said: “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children” [Genesis 32:11]. This Jacob enters in his fear together with Elijah, who was very strong, who said, “There shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word” [1 Kings 17:1]. He was the one who said, “Let fire come down from heaven and consume the fifty” [2 Kings 1:10]. He was the one who overcame 850 prophets of Baal and the prophets of the Asherah poles. This mighty man enters the Kingdom with many of the fearful… What matters is the heart.
The one who died and was buried enters the Kingdom together with the one who was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire.
All of this gives you hope so that you do not fear or despair and say, “We are at a weak degree and a simple level. How can we enter the Kingdom? How can we go to the place where Saint Anthony, Saint Athanasius, the righteous Anba Paul, the twelve apostles, and the Apostle Paul are?” No. Entrance into the Kingdom is equal for all, but the degrees differ and vary. Just as the strong and the weak entered the Ark.
God accepts every good deed, no matter how simple. He accepts a cup of cold water (which has not been affected by heat and into which no substance has been added to give it flavor). God accepts the widow’s two mites just as He accepts the rich who give millions.
Saint John Chrysostom says: “God goes about seeking a reason for your salvation. Even if a single tear fell from your eye during prayer, God takes it and makes it a reason for your salvation before the devil of vainglory snatches it away”.
God blessed the one with two talents just as He blessed the one with five talents, and He said to both of them the same words: “You were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” He also spoke of the seed that produced thirty, the one that produced sixty, and the one that produced a hundred. He described each of them as good seed. So do not despair if you are the kind who produces only thirty and does not increase.
The Holy Gospel tells of people who received redemption, blessing, paradise, or righteousness with one sentence. The right-hand thief, despite all his bad past and all his evil deeds, with one sentence received a promise of entering Paradise when he said: “Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your kingdom” [Luke 23:42]. It is one sentence, but it carries many depths of meanings and feelings. The tax collector who came to the temple with the Pharisee went away justified by one sentence: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” [Luke 18:13]. People who cannot perform great deeds can rely on what is mentioned in Matthew 25: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, and visiting the sick. Then they hear the Lord’s words: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you” [Matthew 25:34].
I remember a story recorded in the Paradise of the Monks about a monk who was lazy in his prayers. They found him rejoicing and happy at the hour of death. They said to him, “How can you rejoice when we know so much about your negligence?” He said to them, “Despite my negligence, I held fast to one verse, which is that I do not judge anyone. And the Lord says: ‘Do not judge, and you shall not be judged.’ So God will not judge me because I did not judge anyone”.
Among the things that comfort us in this regard is the Lord’s saying in the miracle of the five loaves and the two fish: “Gather up the fragments.” You can therefore say to the Lord: “Consider me among these fragments… or among the maimed and the lame.” And You are the One who said: “Encourage the fainthearted, uphold the weak” [1 Thessalonians 5:14].
One of the beautiful things also in the Old Testament is that Leah, Jacob’s weak-eyed wife, who was hated because she was not as beautiful as Rachel, was made by God to bear more sons than her sister Rachel. Among her sons was Levi, from whom the entire tribe of the priesthood came. Among her sons was also Judah, from whom came the royal tribe, and from whom David was born, then Solomon, and from his lineage came Christ, to whom is the glory. Thus, the Lord Christ was born from Leah the weak, and not from Rachel. God encourages the fainthearted, so do not despair. I once said about the Lord in this regard that He is “satisfied with a little.” It is not only the perfect whom God accepts. Rather, He encourages the feeble knees and the weakened arms. He does not reject the bruised reed or the smoking flax. This flax may have some wind blow upon it and then it catches fire.
Say to the Lord, then: “Consider me, O Lord, among those little ones of whom You said, ‘See that you do not despise one of these little ones’” [Matthew 18:10], whether the little ones in age or the little ones in talents. You did not despise Moses, who was slow of speech and slow of tongue. Despite this defect, You called him to prophecy and appointed his brother Aaron to help him. And this man who was slow of speech and slow of tongue was called the friend of God.
We also find that Mary Magdalene, who had seven demons, had these demons cast out by the Lord, and He called her to follow Him. The time came when she was commanded to preach the Resurrection to the eleven, and she became a great saint.
God is concerned not only with the young in age or the small in talents, but even with the small in value. He says: “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will” [Matthew 10:29]. And we say in the Psalm: “Our soul has escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped” [Psalm 124:7]. Imagine a little bird with a trap set for it by the hunters. Yet no danger befalls it. Rather, the trap is broken and it escapes. So do not be afraid, my brother, if you are a little sparrow and traps of hunters surround you. For the Lord will break the traps and save you.
God also cares about animals, and there are many stories about this concern. He said: “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain” [1 Corinthians 9:9], because while doing this it may need to stretch out its mouth and eat. When the Lord Christ entered Jerusalem, He used a donkey and a colt, the foal of a donkey, so that one might give the other rest. And in the Lord’s commandment concerning the day of rest on the Sabbath, He said: “You shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates” [Exodus 20:10]. That is, He cared for the rest of the servant and the maidservant, the rest of the stranger, and also the rest of the animal.
Even more than this, God cared about the rest of the land. He commanded that it be cultivated for six years and rest in the seventh year. In return, the Lord would bless the produce of the sixth year so that it would suffice.
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