Numberless

Awe inspires humility by reminding us of our limitations. It can also build faith by reminding us of God’s limitless knowledge and power.

When God appeared to Abraham, he put His hand on Abraham’s eyes, saying, “My son, my son, behold I will show you all these.” Abraham wrote that he saw God’s creations “which were many; and they multiplied before mine eyes, and I could not see the end thereof” (Abraham 3:12).

Moses had a similar experience. God showed him every particle in the earth and then explained that our earth is just one of innumerable planets. “Worlds without number have I created,” He declared (Moses 1:27, 33), but He immediately clarified that the qualifier “without number” referred to Moses, not to Himself:

The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.

Moses 1:37; see also v. 35

Our sense of wonder can be far more personal than an observation of the distant heavens. After showing Abraham numerous celestial bodies, God promised:

If thou canst count the number of sands, so shall be the number of thy seeds.

Abraham 3:14; see also Genesis 22:17

None of us is capable of counting the grains of sand on even one beach, let alone the entire earth. Yet if we raise even a single child, our posterity may be of the same magnitude.

Both of Lehi’s visions included “numberless concourses” of angels and of people. (See 1 Nephi 1:8; 8:21.) His son Nephi saw his own descendants and the descendants of his brothers “even as it were in number as many as the sand of the sea” (1 Nephi 12:1). Yet he later testified that God “gathereth his children … and numbereth his sheep” (1 Nephi 22:25).

God shows us massive numbers of things and of people to remind us of our cognitive limitations and of our reliance on Him. We may not be able to fathom the extent of His creations or even our own impact in the world, but we can cultivate a greater sense of reverence, trust more fully in Him, and do our work with more confidence, aware that we are operating within a much broader context than we are able to perceive.

Today, I will remember the vastness of God’s creations and the vastness of my own potential impact in this world. I will do my work with a humble awareness of my limitations and with confidence in God’s omniscience.