7 billion people, and each one special to God  

20th June 2019

7 BILLION PEOPLE pixabay  

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 


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



 


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