“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand…” (Psalm 139:17-18)

“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore…” (Genesis 22:17)

Today I visited Pensacola Beach, FL with my two youngest daughters. We live in coastal New England so the beach and ocean are familiar to us. What was new to us at this particular beach was the white sand. I have visited various places in Florida as well as the Keys, but I do not remember the sand being so white. As I was sitting near the shore watching the kids play, I took some of this white sand and rubbed it into my palm. As I smeared it I could see each individual grain of glassy sand. When you look out at the beach it appears more solid than this, but when you really inspect it, it is literally individual pieces of sand, as you probably know. I thought of how many pieces there must be on this beach? I took just a pinch of sand in my fingers and spread it around and there were at least thousands on my hand. It is not millions, billions, trillions, etc. The only number I felt comfortable with was infinity. God knows how many granules are actually on that one particular beach, but the point for me was that it was far beyond what I could calculate or comprehend. 

As I sat there contemplating these tiny specs of glass, the above two sets of Scriptures came to my mind. The first speaks about the thoughts of God toward us: “they are more in number than the sand.” To say that they are more in number than the sand is equivalent to saying that they cannot be numbered, infinite. His thoughts towards us are continuous, they never stop. He is our great Father in heaven who is constantly watching over his children. Also, they are precious thoughts. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29:11) The thoughts of God to those who are in Christ Jesus are only and continually precious and peaceful thoughts. He is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. Our thought patterns, emotions, physical ailments, situations, decisions, relationships, pasts and futures, and a whole bunch of other things are all his business, willingly. We are not trying to get him to be involved. He cares infinitely more than we do about our own lives. And since God is infinite, he can make the minute details of my life his constant business, as well as another believer in a remote village of China somewhere. It is as though I am the only person in the world as far as how involved God is in my life. What a wonderful comfort and hope!

The other scripture that came rushing into my mind was how God promised Abraham that his descendants would be in number as the stars of heaven and as the sand upon the sea shore. That is a lot of children! For those young couples wanting to wait to have children or to only have few children, think about this scripture a little deeper. Do you have the same heart as God has in regards to procreation and offspring? Anyway, the promise to Abraham I believe ultimately is a reference to Jesus Christ and his spiritual offspring (Galatians 3:16 & 29). There were at certain points in Israel’s history where God blessed the wombs of the Jewish women to bear lots of children. However, there has never been a time where the amount of people could not be numbered. This promise of children as many as the stars of heaven and as many grains of sand at the beach is a reference to the spiritual children of God, those from every nation, tribe and tongue, who have placed their faith in Christ and have been born again. Since these children are spread all throughout the earth, and since their identity is not marked by something physical, as far human measurement is concerned, their number is immeasurable! 

A few thoughts jumped out at me about this. First, praise God that his Gospel has been and will always continue to be successful! Sometimes we are tempted to think that only a few will be saved. Perhaps there are and will be some specific moments and places in history where few are being saved: in Sodom before its destruction; the nations before Christ came; physical Jews after Pentecost; etc. But the scriptures are plain that in the grand scheme of things, if we were to see the ransomed host of believers, we would only see a sea of faces, and have the same thoughts that I had on the beach today, that the number is innumerable! God knows how many souls belong to him. Those who are already saved, and those yet to be saved. But we must believe that God has a mighty host, and to continue evangelizing with that thought in mind. We are on the winning side and our labor is never in vain in the Lord.

Second thought: If the number of God’s people are as the sand of the sea, and my calculation of how many Christians are in the world right now is not very, very vast, then I must have a different understanding than God. Slowly over time God has been showing me that he has people everywhere. Even today, in a place I have never been, as we walked down one of the boardwalks, there was sitting on the handrail a booklet by Ray Comfort, obviously set there by some faithful Christian for a lost soul to retrieve. We were able to give a tract to the man checking people on to the pier. I am amazed at how many people I meet in New London, CT that belong to Christ. According to one friend’s research, New London is the least churched city in the least churched county in the country. However the factors work out, the point is that even in one of the most barren places in the country, there are so many Christians there that I am unaware of. They may not look like me, talk like me, worship just like me, evangelize just like me, but they confess Christ and the Spirit bears witness that they are the children of God. I am so thankful that I am a part of one huge family that loves God! If you are the kind of person that keeps very tight fellowship circles, and perhaps have begun to develop that Elijah mentality that you are the only one left, I encourage you to meditate on this scripture we’re discussing a little more.

“Father, you are worthy of infinite praise, for who you are, what you have done, and what you continually do for your people. Thank you for these little, but vast reminders that you have placed on every beach in this world. May we walk with you in faithfulness and in a way that pleases you today, for the glory of Jesus Christ. Amen”