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How Many Stars and How Many Sahara’s?

So we watched this science video about stars.

Try to imagine how many grains of sand are in the entire Sahara Desert, which is larger than the continental United States. Plus that from all the other deserts in the world. Then add all the sand of the Earth’s beaches, and they estimate there are 220,000 miles of coastline.


The amount of stars in the (known) universe is at least ten times as much as the number of grains of sand on the Earth. Again, the number of stars outweighs the number of sand grains on Earth by 10:1, probably more.

That evokes endless awe and is overwhelmingly beautiful in itself.

The rest of this post is religious.

This gives us a small glimpse into how much bigger God is than us.

Here are four applications:

  1. That is the size of his understanding.

That’s how many things he knows that we don’t.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭11:33‬ ‭

Often his ways don’t make sense to us. But before we judge Him, (“How could he let this happen?” “He can’t be a loving God because …”) it may be good to remember that our understanding is a single grain of sand, and his knowledge is ten Sahara’s.

  1. That is the enormity of his wrath against our sin.

For folks who don’t want God bossing them around, that’s how much fury is awaiting them on Judgment Day. “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him [already].” John 3:36b

For those who have surrendered to him, that’s how much wrath Jesus absorbed so you don’t have to. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Romans 5:9

Exactly how much worship does Jesus deserve for doing that?

  1. If you belong to Christ, his forgiveness outweighs your worst deeds that much.

Paul slightly understates it in Romans 5:20b, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” If your worst failures and vile deeds are one grain of sand, Father’s forgiveness is all the grains of sand in all the deserts of the world.

I’m saying this gently – if you think your sin is too great, you haven’t understood Who He Is yet. Keep coming to him till you understand.

  1. How much affection does Father have for you?

I am really not into tossing around magical Bible verses to make people feel bubbly. So, I’m not. “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

If one sand grain is all the best music humans make — U2, Taylor Swift, AC/DC — God’s singing over you is enough sand to cover all the beaches of all the continents.

What could that possibly sound like? What would we experience if he let us hear his “loud singing” for twenty or thirty seconds?

Spirit Filled … Sculptor?

I think it’s kind of funny how one of the first places a guy in the Bible was “filled with the Spirit” it made him a gifted artist, a sculptor. It doesn’t mention miracles, speaking in tongues, or prophesying.

Exodus 30:1-5 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.

What would it be like to be filled with the Spirit… as a chef? or a social worker? or a computer geek?

Pontius Pilate is my Favorite

Pontius Pilate is my favorite character in the Easter story this year because he was a coward and a weasel, and I can relate to that.

I feel so often like Pilate. Empty hope, wishing the obvious was somehow not true. All I see in him is fear and angst.

Trapped.

His neck was on the line, though, and he had to choose. So he chose to violate his conscience. He knew the right thing to do. He knew Jesus was innocent. In the same sentence he says, “Take him and crucify him,” and “I find no fault in him at all.”

My other favorite character is Jesus because I cannot relate to him one bit. He makes me question everything I know.

For example, he would still offer Pilate forgiveness, whereas I don’t think I would. If I came back from the grave I would butcher him.

Then again, if I was dead for a few days and tasted the sweet delights of the next life with Father, I would probably come back a very different person.

Exactly what did Jesus see or know or experience that made him able to forgive his torturers so easily?

Pretty Sure It Was a Miracle

I believe we have seen a miracle in our home.

One of the people in my family has made funny clicking noises related to how their teeth do not meet correctly. Sometimes they do it multiple times per second. It has been this way for years.

Then on March 1, they woke up and all of that stopped. Their jaw feels different. Their teeth meet differently. The clicking noises are gone.

I am slow to call something a miracle for any number of reasons.

Sometimes people see a miracle because they *want* to. Or, it could be a simple misperception. It may be a natural, not a supernatural, phenomenon.

Also, I am a scientist. If God really did a medical healing, you would expect some good evidence (someone can probably cite examples to the contrary, but I’m just sort of writing this out spontaneously). If the cancer disappeared, you should be able to compare a ‘Before’ CAT scan and an ‘After’ CAT scan and see the difference. You know? Either he healed it, or he did not. There shouldn’t be much room for debate.

Or, if you tried every possible treatment for debilitating, lifelong allergies and they all failed, and then someone with the gift of miraculous healing prays for you, and the next day the symptoms are 100% gone, that’s pretty compelling.

If your body healed itself from the flu, I’m not really sure that counts as a miracle. (Although I think a body that heals is — literally — miraculous. Consider https://freespiritseedcompany.com/2021/10/20/science-vs-miracles) If you prayed for a parking space and got one, well, maybe it was, maybe not.

Anyways, this healing in my family doesn’t seem like ‘circumstantial evidence.’ We weren’t hoping for healing. We didn’t even pray about it. We were just bee-bopping along doing normal ol’ things, we wake up one ordinary morning, and BAM! Things were different.

So, I don’t know. I think it probably was.

I just thought I’d share.

Are Women Finished?

Back in the day, Woman typically meant someone with a womb and softer mannerisms who was mostly domestic.

Thanks to tremendous progress, we have pretty much cleansed our culture of the notion that men and women are very different. We are equals.

I’m scared, though, that ditching the old definitions may have made the situation worse for women, at least the way we handled it.

In our well-intended efforts at equality, we chose sameness over diversity. Instead of, “Woman means this, Man means that, and the diversity is beautiful!” we made women and men interchangeable. Instead of upgrading the bad definitions, we deleted them, left a blank space, and called it equality.

So what?

If Woman doesn’t mean anything different from Man, it seems we also deleted the reason to celebrate Women’s History Month. It would just be History Month.

It’s challenging to protest men oppressing women when Man and Woman mean the same thing.

Woman doesn’t mean a uterus and hips, because some people with those identify as men, of course.

It would be sexist to say that motherhood, wearing a pretty dress, or being more emotional are essential parts of womanhood.

If someone identifies as a woman, what do they mean?

It can’t be rearing children, being the weaker sex, or being more relational and intuitive. That’s way outdated.

If we say Woman means Whatever She Wants It To Mean, that is legit. The only thing is it doesn’t help us differentiate woman from man, which is sort of important if we want a woman in the White House.

What does Woman mean?

How To Make Tiny Changes

I have lost about eight pounds in the past two years. It’s not a big improvement, but it is an improvement.

I can’t do a crash diet, or any “diet,” really. If a change is going to last, it has to be sustainable. So I just want to encourage you, whether you’re trying to lose weight, lay down the tobacco, or become a more patient person, you can do it if you set a realistic goal you can sustain for the long term.

For me that meant instead of eating two pieces of pizza, I can get by with 1 and 3/4 and still be full enough. Instead of filling my bowl with ice cream, I can make it only 90% full, and still feel satisfied. Maybe I do that for a few months till I’m comfortable with it, and then reduce my ice cream another 5-10%, which isn’t that hard. If I’m hating every minute of it, I won’t stick with it.

So, whatever it is you’ve given up on, don’t be afraid to try again — as long as you’re setting realistic goals. And that will probably mean something really, really small. I have hated exercising in a gym forever, so when my doctor told me I need to anyways, I had to start small.

I rode the exercise bike for just five minutes a day, I didn’t try to break a sweat, and I didn’t do it every day. Because that was a goal I could actually accomplish and not get weary of doing it.

Eventually I worked my way up to six minutes, and then very slightly faster. A year and a half later, I’m up to ten minutes, and I ride fast for 30 seconds and then slow for 30. Eleven minutes is too much for me right now. Maybe I’ll feel ready for it next year, or never.

If you want to be less sedentary, maybe park at the back of the parking lot so you walk further, and only do it in nice weather. Maybe you can at least sustain that.

If you want to read more, can you read — and sustain — two pages every week?

If you want to be more confident, I’ll bet you could stall a moment before giving in instead of just laying down and taking it. You could probably say, “Hang on a second. I need to go to the bathroom,” or, “Can I call you back in a few minutes?” If you still give in, at least you’ve discovered you can say No and hold your ground for two minutes. That’s an improvement.

If God Seems Cruel

If your image of God is that he is cruel, psycho, or hateful, I want to share something a little bit science-y with you.

I painted this on my basement wall. It shows the size of the Sun and Earth, to scale. The Earth is the dot the arrow is pointing at. It is the size of a quarter (I traced around one). The Sun, as you can see, is taller than my door, stretches higher than the ceiling and lower than the floor.

Earth would actually be three football fields away. Try to imagine standing in your doorway (like the one above) with a friend holding out a quarter from that far away. How small would it seem?

Yet the gravity of the Sun is so vast it can hold onto that quarter-sized planet from such a distance.

In fact, it’s so big you could fit one million Earths inside the Sun and still have extra room for them to jiggle around.

In the Bible, Jesus is compared with the Sun (Malachi 4:2, Revelation 1:16).

The size of the Sun compared to Earth is something like the size of Jesus compared to you and me. That would also be the size of his tenderness.

Notice the words tender and comfort in these verses.

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.” Isaiah 40:1-2a

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4a

And finally, Luke 1:78 speaks of “the tender mercy of our God.” Not just mercy, but tender mercy.

If we imagine God as a tyrant, like an alcoholic father, we have missed something important. Sure, he has some rules like any good leader. But if, for the past ten or twenty years God has mainly seemed angry, maybe take the next decade or two pondering his tenderness. Then things may seem more in balance.

Served by a Hippie

I remember the first time I was schooled by a former hippie. He said, “So your pro-life? I’ll bet you’re in favor of capital punishment, too. I always love that little contradiction!”

I was furious because he had called me on the carpet and I had no answer.

More recently, a bright young woman asked, “Hey Jake, I’m curious what you think about this. If someone is pro life in terms of abortion, does that mean she needs to be against capital punishment? And if one is pro life, does she have to be against physician assisted suicide?”

My short answer as to the difference between capital punishment and abortion is God hates the shedding of innocent blood, Proverbs 6:16, but the blood of serial killers is not innocent. With certain limitations, he ordains governments to protect their citizens from heinous criminals domestic and foreign, and this can include the death penalty, Romans 13:3-4, and war, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

Regarding physician assisted suicide, He said in Exodus 20:13, “You shall not kill,” which includes suicide. He did not say, “But killing is ok if there is poor quality of life.” End of life issues can be extremely complex. I get that. I dealt with it at the hospital twice yesterday. I’m just saying that killing is not a valid option.

Happy To Be Weak

My favorite thing about myself is how weak I am.

The only thing better than being strong is being weak and being held up, held onto by someone who is Really Strong.

I ran from this truth for the longest time. I wanted to believe I was strong, so I hid my weak points. Or more accurately, I hid from them because I didn’t want to face them.

The hard, cold truth is difficult to deny when a loved one is in surgery, for example, or when I hear politics on the news. Then it becomes real clear how powerless I am.

Or when I have to face the fact that my children are growing up and I won’t be able to protect them for the rest of their lives.

Or when a tiny virus brings me to my knees.

Maybe I feel strong when things are going well, but it takes very little to remind me of the truth.

I am not saying being weak is enjoyable. I’m saying being weak and being held onto — oh, that is the good life! And the only way I can enjoy it is to embrace my weaknesses, celebrate them, cling to them like my life depends on them.

Because the weaker I am, the more meaningful his power is.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will BOAST all the more GLADLY of my weaknesses, SO THAT THE POWER OF CHRIST MAY REST UPON ME.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭12:9

P.S. I am not suggesting anyone should quit trying to be strong. It is not strength I oppose, but conceit. It’s the idea that I am the one who is in control of my life, I get the credit for my success, not God, and I am strong in and of myself. That was delusion and led to misery. The more I surrender my pride and self-reliance, the more unshakable my happiness grows.