I love the beach. It’s one of my favorite places to be. To sit in the sand and watch the waves roll in… I love it! But I’ve found I’m a fan of the sand when it’s at the beach… not in our clothes, shoes or car! (We may or may not still have some stragglers in our vehicle from our vacation last June!)

I opened up my Bible this morning to a sermon note page from October, with a verse highlighted in Psalm 139. And all this talk of grains of sand. Our associate pastor had shared that morning the rough estimate of grains of sand on the earth. You ready?

Seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion (7.5 x 10^18).

“Reckless Love” was playing in the background and I quickly realized this was the point of Pastor Dave’s message that day – the extravagant, ridiculous, reckless love of God.

“How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” – Psalm 139:17-18

When I think of the word precious, a swaddled baby comes to mind… or maybe a family heirloom, a rare photograph. Something cute, valued, but fragile. Precious.

The Hebrew word used in Psalm 139:17 is yaqar (H3365), and in this verse it specifically means “to be heavy, metaphor. to be hard to be understood.”

So while we may think, at face value, His thoughts are precious – valued, dear, esteemed, prized… they are perhaps, more accurately, precious – heavy, costly, behind our comprehension, worth their weight in gold.

Also, I’ve always thought (no pun intended) that the thoughts referred to in this verse were His thoughts toward me, but I’m not sure the text is saying that. Surely they can include His thoughts toward me, but I’m wondering if we should step back and see the big picture. After all, His thoughts outnumber the grains of sand, all seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion of them.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9

I often think of this word “higher” in physical terms. As a child, Heaven seemed so far away… past the ceiling, above the sky, beyond earth’s atmosphere, further than outer space. Higher.

But I’ve also learned that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, that God is near. He is with us. I’m held in His hand. His spirit lives in me. Maybe Heaven isn’t as far away as I physically thought.

I dug a little deeper, wrestling with this word higher. I don’t think it’s merely a physical reference here. Heaven is much higher than the earth, but maybe in another way. One of the Hebrew definitions for gabahh (H1361) is “exalted, elevated to a greater degree of dignity and honor.”

So humbly I come close, to catch a glimpse of my Father’s heart, to receive one of His weighty thoughts. I elevate what He thinks – I let it take root in my soul. I let go of my own insecurities, other people’s opinions, the devil’s lies, and the world’s unspoken standards.

I open my mind and heart to hear His truth. His precious, higher-than-mine thoughts – not the fluffy, ethereal ones. The heavy, exalted grains of sand. I collect them as if my life depended on it. Because it does.

Who He is and who He says I am – my identity is found here. Only He can fill the God-shaped hole within; He designed it for Himself. Specks of sand here and there don’t seem like much, but when you get a pile going… that’s when a beach is formed, or a sand dune, a desert hill. That’s when ingrained thought patterns begin to shift and freedom comes like a refreshing wave.

God’s thoughts are mighty. I wonder if we only grasp His spoken words as mighty… He spoke things into being, yes. But I believe there’s power in thoughts, too. We see it in our lives. How much more with our God, in whose image we’re created? His ways AND thoughts are higher than (exalted and esteemed over) our ways AND thoughts.

The end of Psalm 139:18 always seemed a little out of place to me, but what if it’s a starting point? A heavy, hard to understand thought – a grain of sand – straight from the Father’s heart that deserves our time, space, attention, and grabbing hold of?

“When I awake, I am still with You.”

A timely reminder of the Christmas story, of our Immanuel – our God with us. God loves us so much, He put His thoughts and words into action. He sent His beloved Son for us, to be born at Christmas, to live a sinless life, to die a sinner’s death in our place, to raise Him back to life in victory… all for our relationship with Him to be completely restored, once and for all…

So God could be with us, always. So we could be with Him, forever.

We didn’t earn it, we don’t deserve it. That’s the beauty of it all. It’s a gift – by grace, through faith. The first and best Christmas gift ever given – Jesus. Immanuel. God with us.

May we never stop counting, weighing, grasping – His thoughts, His heart. Every grain of sand.

❤️

This week’s song suggestions:

• “God With Us” by We Are Messengers
• “You Say” by Lauren Daigle
• “Love Came Down” by Kari Jobe