More Than Sand

“If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.


Psalm 139:18


If you are like me at all its hard to imagine the depth of God’s love for me and you, especially when God says His love for us is incalculable, like the sand on the seashore. As my wife and I are enjoying our last day here in Maui, Hawaii I can see miles and miles of sandy beaches and just taking one handful contains more grains than I can possible count. That verse overwhelms me as much I think it did King David too as I am certain David knew the darkness that resided within his own heart as I know resides within mine.

As I was reading yesterday in my bible a passage of scripture I have read hundreds of times and taught on, on numerous occasions took on a much more clearer meaning as I ponder God’s love. The passage is one that most read and thank God for seeing what no one else sees, and that being our heart. Scripture delineates the difference between how we look at each other and how God sees us. In 1 Samuel 16:17 we read, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Often times I reference that particular passage in 1 Samuel 16 when I feel like others have misinterpreted my actions or have judged me harshly and my feelings are hurt. Maybe you can relate? We draw comfort in one particular event of our lives and thank God that He could see what no one else could in that moment as all others can see is the external. What we forget is that what the passage is really saying is God sees our whole heart all the time, both the external and the internal. There is not a thought we have the Bible affirms that God does not know it. If we think about that long it won’t provide us peace we long for but rather condemnation and shame because of what Jeremiah 17:9 declares, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” My heart isn’t pure nor is yours and God sees it all and knows every thought, every motive, every reason why we do what we do.

The point is this. God knows everything and I mean everything about you and He still loves you. In life, often times the longer we know most people the less we truly love and appreciate them as much as we bear with and tolerate them. Thats because we are imperfect people and everyone in our lives is imperfect too. Its why people don’t like to get close to too many people out of the fear of rejection. The good news of the Gospel today is God does in fact love you more than the stars in the heavens and more than the sand on all the beaches in the world and that is after the fact that He knows everything about you, the good, the bad and the ugly. Simply put, God chooses to love us. I like what one author writes, “I thank God He chose me before the beginning of the world for I am certain He would not have chosen me afterwards.”

Consider this today. God’s love is unchanging, though He calls you and I to repentance, to change, God doesn’t love you any more when you are your best and He doesn’t love you any less when you are at your worst. The next time a wicked or impure thought passes through your mind thank God that He knows everything you are thinking and that it is why Jesus came and died for you. Ask God to forgive you and to replace your own thoughts with His. Then try imagine the height and the depth and width of His love by either looking up into the heavens at night and seeing all those stars or if you are fortunate like my wife and I to sit on the beach today, grab a handful of sand and let it fall between your fingers realizing Gods love is more than all those combined. Hopefully it will have the same impact on you that it had on King David and that it has on my wife and I today as we lay on the beach, with our hands and feet covered in sand.


“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.”


Psalm 139:6


I LOVE YOU!