Scripture: Genesis 22:17
I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.

Thought for the Day: Let’s think about the grains of sand for a minute. In Florida I couldn’t even begin to count them. I’m not sure there is a big enough number to describe the amount of sand in Florida. Of course, case that hasn’t stopped people from trying. One answer I found used a pretty good mathematical formula, and guesstimated that a single beach would have 31 quadrillion grains of sand. That’s one beach. Of course, another person answered that we could never know how many grains of sand in even one beach, because the sand constantly has babies and replenishes itself. I want to believe they were kidding, but I’m not so sure…

I’m having fun with math, but Genesis is a work of inspired metaphor, not to be taken literally. The implication—the wonderful, joyful implication of  22:17, is that we are all descended from one source—not a physical source, not a single human descendant, but the source of all creation, God. We are all the descendants of God. Every human of every color in every corner of the planet is our cousin.

This spiritual idea conveyed by Genesis was way ahead of its time. Because it turns out that physically, genetically, we are all essentially the same too. All modern humans are descended from the same evolutionary branch. So both physically and spiritually, we are all one species, one race, all the sons and daughters of an amazingly beautiful creative source. We are, all of us, cousins, created by God to dance with God’s self on the soft, sandy beaches, under the glistening starry sky, forever.

Prayer: I’m not much of a dancer, Lord, but I’m willing to learn and let you lead. Amen.