How Vast is the Sum of Them!
July 20, 2018
“The weather is here. Wish you were beautiful.” This is my classic line on any postcard I send to family or friends. Somewhere on the three-inch space on the back of a postcard, I will pen these words. It is expected. But in my playfulness, my loved ones know that while away, I am thinking of them! My mom will say to me, before I leave on a trip, “You’ll be too busy to think of me.” However, I always respond, “Of course I’ll think of you. You are in my heart!” And while this is true, and while I do daily think of her and many others, I am sure I fall short of the vast sum of the thoughts that God has towards us.
So a few weeks ago, when I sat down to write postcards to send back to the USA and share my thoughts, I happened to read Psalm 139:17-18.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
The psalmist was marveling about the preciousness of the thoughts of God toward him and about how much God thought of him—the VAST amount of thoughts God had toward him and how he was never away from the presence of God.
In my finite thoughts about God, I think of Him as very busy and cannot fathom, just as my Mom cannot fathom about me, that He has time to think about ME and the other 7 billion people in the world. Yet, He tells us in this Psalm that He not only thinks of us, but His thoughts about us are infinite—more than the sand and even after a night’s sleep or a nap on the innumerable granules of sand on the beach, we are still with Him and never have to wish He were here, beautiful weather or not!