“I am but a grain of sand…”

Have you ever thought about the grains of sand compared to the number of stars in the sky?

What about God’s blessings in comparison to sand and stars?

In Genesis 22:17, God gives Abraham a blessing and it is not just a blessing for him, but for us too. God says, “ I will bless you with incredible blessings and multiply your descendants into countless thousands and millions, like the stars above you in the sky, and like the sands along the seashore.” How big is a blessing like that?

Several years ago, me and my family were at the beach. My son and I wandered out early one morning, looking for shells and shark’s teeth.  With fixated eyes, we scoured the sandy beach for treasure. We did not realize we were standing on top of our biggest find. There in the dug out crevices below our feet, we discovered a large letter ‘G’. It was hard to recognize at first, because it was so big. It must have been 10 feet tall and 2 feet wide. We backed up to get a better look.

That’s when we realized there was not just one letter, but many. Backing up more, the word ‘grain’ came into focus. We had been standing in the middle of a message. Realizing the words spanned on down the beach, my son darted toward the beginning of the sentence. I ran after him exhilarated by this treasure hunt we found ourselves on.

The sentence read, “I am but a grain of sand…”. It seems small here, but the author had obviously spent hours digging out each letter of this phrase in precise magnitude. I wondered if the words had been written by the finger of God. Had God left us this message? Immediately, I thought of Hebrews 12:2, “God is the Author and Perfecter of our faith.” The words settled on me like a warm blanket.

There is a poem by William Blake entitled, “Auguries of Innocence”. The first stanza reads,

“To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.”

Google says, if you assume a grain of sand has an average size and you calculate how many grains are in a teaspoon and then multiply by all the beaches and deserts in the world, the Earth has roughly 7.5 x 10¹⁸ grains of sand, or seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains. That is an unfathomable amount of sand. Believe it or not, there are more stars than there is sand. You can look that up for yourself. Yet God says, “ I will bless you with incredible blessings…”

Here’s my point; God is so big. Bigger than the number of all the grains of sand. More than all the stars. God wants to bless us in His bigness. God wants to loves us in His enormity. Bob Dylan wrote a song that says, “In the fury of a moment, I can see the Master’s hand.  In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.” I’ve attached it below if you want to listen to it. The words are quite incredible.

In Psalm 139:17-18  CEB,  David wrote, “God, your plans are incomprehensible to me!
    Their total number is countless!  If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand!
    If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you.”

I believe God left us a reminder that day. In spite of all the stars and sand, God knows me, loves me and wants to bless me. Just like all the sand and stars, God’s goodness is so great, and His love for us is greater. So great I cannot comprehend it.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, thank you that you remind us of who you are in the vastness of the sand and the stars. Thank you that you have a great big love for us. So big, you sent your Son to die on the cross and saved us all. Thank you that even if we came to the very end of everything, you would still be with us. In Jesus Name, Amen. -M

ps – I’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment below. Stay tuned as we enter Book Watch 2018, where I will be announcing the arrival of my first book.