Summer may be over, but let’s not lose the childlike joy of simple things. It’s the small and what seems ordinary in life that can speak deeply if I’m willing to ponder them. I see the beauty of creation in every flower, God’s power in the storm, his provision in nature as I watch the birds find berries in the trees. As night turns to day I say with the prophet Jeremiah, his mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:23).
Sand
Children love sandpits. Perhaps it’s because sand encourages their imagination and creativity. Apart from not eating it or throwing it around, there are no rules. They can make what they like, roads and race tracks, mountains and tunnels. It’s so satisfying when all the castle turrets stand tall and at last the flag flies high. Does it somehow mirror God’s delight in his creation? In the Genesis account he declares it to be ‘very good’.
I like sand too. There’s a lot of it in the Middle East. Perhaps that’s why David used sand as his analogy.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand (Psalm139:17-18).
As dry sand runs through my fingers I’m reminded of how uncountable these grains are. It’s wonderful to remember that God sees me and knows me, and that his thoughts towards me and to all those who follow Jesus are lovingly innumerable.
In the book of Revelation we read of ‘a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, all tribes, peoples and languages, standing before the throne and the Lamb’ (Revelation 7:9). Two thousand years earlier God speaking to Abraham likened this vast number to the sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:17).
God likes to use ‘sand’ and its uncountable nature when illustrating his thoughts and purposes. As I commit myself to live for him I trust I’ll have impact, and in the words of Longfellow’s poem, A Psalm for Life, ‘leave my footprints in the sands of time.’
