From the Stars to Me

My latest Google search found that there are 300 sextillion stars in the universe.  That is the number 3 followed by 23 zeros if you wish to write it out.  To say that is a lot would be the understatement of the year.  I could spend my entire life counting them and not even come close to numbering them all.  But what does the stars have to do with me?  Well, recently I have become fascinated with numbers of things that are too big to count.

For example, did you know that the average person has 90,000 to 150,000 hairs just on their head?  True, it is not 300 sextillion, but it is still impressive.  And nobody I know has enough time to count them all, let alone number them.  But take a look at this verse from Matthew:

"But even the hairs of your head are all numbered." (10:30 ESV)

Really?  God took the time not only to count the hairs on my head, but to number them all too?  I was impressed the first time I read that verse, but it took a sad event in my life to come to grips with a number as big as 150,000.

It was a cold January night in 2013 when I learned what was wrong with me.  I had Leukemia.  Years of Chemotherapy treatment lay before me.  I had to quite my job, drop my college classes, and spend weeks feeling so sick I could hardly get out of bed.  And then came the hair loss.  At first I thought it was no big deal: when I brushed my hair a few extra strands came out, when I woke up in the morning I found some on my pillow.  But then it got worse, where ever I sat piles of hair fell out around me.  Every time I touched my head many strands would fall to my shoulders.  The doctor had told me my hair loss could take months, but how could that be when it was falling out so very fast?  After a month of intense hair loss I looked in the mirror and was shocked to see that my head looked fine.  It only looked a little thiner at the top but besides that completely normal.

What?!?

When my mind stopped spinning I tried to wrap my head around the fact that I had lost so much hair, and still had so much more left.  Surly by now I would be bald as an egg!  My next thought was the verse in Matthew.  Suddenly I came to grips with just how big 150,000 was.  It was like God had to smack me in the face for me to realize just how much he cared about me.

So the God of the universe (with 300 sextillion stars in it) made some one like me and loves me so much that he numbered the hairs on my head.  Now that I really understand how big 150,000 is, I can not even begin to fathom what 300 sextillion looks like.  All those stars, made seemingly for no other reason than for us to see them and enjoy them.

My wish is that the next time you see a star filled sky, you will thank and praise the Creator who took the time to make them.