I was reading sometime back in the Old Testament book of Zechariah and came across this phrase. “He who touches you, touches the apple of His eye” (2:8). To be quite honest, when I read that verse, I stopped in my tracks and didn’t go any further. I was so captured by those words.

Read it again. Do you get the impact of what is being said here? God says that you are the “apple of his eye.” You all know what this phrase means. I don’t have to give you detailed explanations describing this figure of speech. But I’ll give you one anyway.

Some years back I made a hospital visit to see a couple upon the birth of their second child. When I got there, the father’s parents were there, and the grandfather was holding the baby. I stayed in the room just talking and visiting with everyone for about 20 or 30 minutes . . . and that grandfather held that little newborn child the entire time! Nobody else touched her. In fact, I don’t think he even made eye contact with me but a few times, and I knew this man well from a previous business relationship. You see, he was locked on to that new grandchild. Now some of you may be thinking, “Dear man, this must be his first grandchild.” It wasn’t. That was his ninth. And I’m sure he loves all nine of them. But for those moments, this new granddaughter was the apple of her granddad’s eye.

Let me continue the analogy. Notice I said that she was the apple of his eye “for those moments.” Like I said, this grandfather had eight other grandchildren. He couldn’t favor this new one over the other grandchildren. He wouldn’t want to. Though I’m sure he loved them all equally, he couldn’t devote exclusive attention to one child continuously the way he did for those moments in the hospital room. Besides, he had five children that he loved, a wife that he loved and to whom he is committed, a job that keeps him occupied, and he was active in his church. As good a man as he was, this man was incapable of keeping that new granddaughter the apple of his eye on a continual basis. But God is.

You see, there is never a time when you are not the apple of God’s eye. Because God is infinite in his love and abilities, he doesn’t have to balance the attention he gives to you with the attention he gives to his other children. The intensity of his love for you never changes. Just like that grandfather sat there with his eyes fixed on that new little one, almost oblivious to everything else going on in the room, you are always the focal point of God’s love. He doesn’t focus on you for a while, and then go on to other things or other people. You are the apple of God’s eye—always have been, always will be.

And this wonderful state is without condition. God said these words from Zechariah about his people, Israel, after hundreds of years of idolatry and in-your-face disobedience. Yet he still loved them. You see, you can’t stop God from feeling this way about you. Because He is God, he knows you. He knows all about you. He knows your dark past. He knows your daily failures. He knows how you have been hurt, and he knows the idols you indulge in order to avoid facing that pain. He knows your weakness and your sin and your struggle. And you are still the apple of his eye.