7 billion people, and each one special to God  

20th June 2019

  

Ian Boughton, Network Norfolk contributor, has been contemplating the enormity of the world population, and marvels that God knows us all by name
 

I have always had a problem with the concept of ‘scale’, with regard to faith
 
I am greatly reassured by the idea of a supreme father who knows all of us, and who is familiar with my individual failings, numerous and embarrassing though they may be... but I stumble at the thought that there are so many of us on this planet.   Seven-point-seven billion, as of today – seven thousand million
 
I just can’t imagine how God can find me in his address book at all.  Even if he subcontracted my pastoral care to a guardian angel (a concept I also love!) that poor overworked angel must have thousands to watch over. I just can’t grasp it
 
Last week my computer storage disk blew up.  This is a gadget about eight inches by four, which plugs into my PC and held 70Gb (seventy gigabytes!) of data from my working life, fifty-two years as a writer, my musical career, personal life, and family pictures, and so on.  All gone in a flash, bang
 
A ‘data recovery’ business in the Midlands said they could try and recover some of this, and that they would return any saved data to me on a memory stick – that’s a little thing about half the size of my thumb, which sticks into the side of my PC.   And they did – 70Gb of incredibly complex data on a thing half the size of my thumb
 
Thousands of angels on a pinhead, I thought
 
Suddenly I seem closer to resolving my problem of scale!

Image by Okan Caliskan from https://pixabay.com

 


Ian Boughton is a musician, author, and retired journalist who lives in Dilham in Norfolk.  His latest book is ‘Are You With the Band?’  
 

The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Yarmouth, and are intended to stimulate constructive and good-natured debate between website users

We welcome your thoughts and comments, posted below, upon the ideas expressed here

Click here to read our forum and comment posting guidelines