“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” Psalm 139:17-28, NIV

God is a very good mathematician, the original. My weakest subject in school was math. I still need a calculator to figure out what 20 percent of my tab is in order to leave a tip. Math is science that attempts to track what God has created. The fixed rules and values that were designed into creation help us to see the faithfulness and unchangeableness of God. The infinite numbers show us, in a small way, what eternity means. It reminds us there are things that cannot be measured in our understanding.

My limitations hinder me from understanding the breadth and depth of his love for me and the magnitude of eternity. As I was meditating on the above scripture, I attempted to count sand to better understand the number of thoughts God has about me. I scooped a handful of sand in one hand and attempted to pick out individual grains of sand and count them. After missing about half of the grains and counting more than two hundred of them, I realized it barely made a dent in the small mound in the palm of my hand. I was awestruck to think about how often he thinks about my insignificant self.

God, who lives in eternity and created the universe, has the capacity to think numerous thoughts of me and of you. Our God is not bound by time; he is not limited to thinking about one or two things. He is the ultimate multitasker.

Taking it a step further, I realize that it is not just me that God thinks about but that he thinks about every single person on this planet, and has done so since the beginning of time. In a minor way, I can begin to understand his limitless power and ability to answer prayers.

“Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:7-9,KJ21)