5 Minutes of Hope

by Linda Handzel

There’s a lot of sand by the shore. We save it in bottles, or we use it to make terrariums, but there is still more where that came from. For all the shore sand I have seen in my life it has never occurred to me to count how many grains of sand my hand can hold. Seriously? Who has time for that? How would I keep track of which grain I have counted, and which one I haven’t? How would I take one grain out of the uncounted pile and put it in the counted pile?

Out of curiosity I did some research about numbering grains of sand. I noticed that numbers listed were all estimates, understandably so. One estimate was that there are 10,000 grains in a ¼ teaspoon of sand. So, that would be 40,000 grains in one teaspoon, which translates to 120,000 grains in one tablespoon of sand. That means one cup of sand equals one million, nine hundred, twenty thousand grains. Think of an average seashore, and the sand there is at that one spot. How many cups of sand would that be? How many grains?

Now consider what David said in Psalm 139: 17&18, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.” God’s thoughts of you are more than the number of sands on the shore. Let your mind, and then your heart grasp how much God loves you and thinks about you. He loves you so much that He can’t stop thinking about you, nor does He want to.

I can tell you a couple of things He’s thinking. Psalm 139:14 says that you are wonderfully made. Height, weight, hair color, the size of your nose or your feet, and any other characteristics you can think of, you are wonderfully made.

Here is another thing: His every thought of you is filled with love. God loves you so much that He sent His son to die for your sins. His love is steadfast and everlasting, which means it will never end.

God thinks about you all the time. Given how much sand there is on this earth, it is safe to say that He is thinking about you right now… and now… and NOW! Whether you are sleeping or not – He is thinking about you. Whether you are in crazy traffic, sitting in court, or listening to crushing news on the phone, He is thinking about you. It is safe to say that He is thinking about you all the time. And He is thinking that you are perfectly formed with love.

Now go through your day, your week, and your year thinking this one thought: “God has me on His mind, and He loves that thought.”

*** Read more about Linda on our “This Week’s Featured Person” page or visit her website at http://www.lindahandzel.com