April 24

Numbers 1 I have been traveling from Stillwater, Oklahoma to Cary, North Carolina, a total of over 1200 miles. Along I-40 we have passed through many large cities, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, etc. At times we have driven on highways that were 5 lanes wide going both directions (a total of 10 lanes). The lanes have been flooded with cars, sometimes stopped because of the volume of traffic on the highways. At those times I am often overwhelmed with the multitudes of people. How can God know any of us intimately? Yet I am reminded of how little our planet is in this vast universe. If each one of those cars on the highway were representative of just one galaxy, then there still would not be enough cars to represent each of the galaxies in creation. The smallest galaxies contain around 10 million stars. The largest galaxies are estimated to contain about 100 trillion stars. There are about 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. There are more than 1024 stars in the known universe! (I don’t even know the name for that number.) There are only 7 billion people on the planet. We are infinitesimally small in relation to the created universe. Our God created each of those stars as well as each of the 7 billion people currently on our planet, which means, He is even larger still. Of course if He can create all that, then He is capable of knowing it intimately. But what assurance do we have that He wants to know us intimately? The declaration that He made at creation is the first assurance. He said, “Let Us make man in Our own image.” Out of the multitude of created things and created beings, we are the only beings said to have been created in His image. Whatever that image is, we possess it! Because of that image, we are important. Because of that image, the taking of human life without His permission is wrong. Because of that image, we are important to Him. Because of that image, we have chapters and books like this one in the Bible, the book of what is important to God. I don’t really care who the head of what tribe was in Israel 3,453 years ago, 8,000 miles from where I live. But it is important enough to God that He includes it in His communication to us. I think He does this to demonstrate how important each of us is to Him. In the midst of an overwhelming multitude of people, he knows us individually. Now that is incredible! That is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john