1 in 7,530,180,629
I heard a statistic the other day that said the average person shares a full name with anywhere from 500 to 2000 people in the world, and possibly more if you have a more common name. According to the most recent world poll there’s roughly 7.5 billion people on planet Earth. Let that really sink in: you are just 1 in 7,530,180,629- and according to the world population survey, you’ll only ever interact with or come in any contact with about 0.0000106% of those people in your lifetime. Does that make you feel small? It should.
It’s nearly impossible for me to comprehend a being that could create that many individual lives, yet still seek a thriving and loving relationship with each and every one of them. He demanded that a part of Him be laid down and sacrificed so that each one of us could pursue those relationships with Him; each no more or less important to Him than the last. I think about how this omnipresent creator could even bother knowing my name, let alone anything about me or anyone else on Earth. I don’t have lots of money, or fame. I’m a nobody. I’m just like everybody else.
Scripture paints the picture in Luke 8 when Jesus was traveling through the crowds of people, and a diseased woman fought through the crowd and touched the hem of His robes. So if Jesus is God, He knows all. He knows the names and emotions of all people, but yet He still asks “Who was it that touched me?” You better believe He very well knew who the woman was already, but yet gave her the chance to come to Him. He took that brief moment from His travel to acknowledge, love, and heal that single woman- one moment that would literally alter the entire rest of her life on Earth.
Not only does this Creator know our names, but He CREATED us. He gave us breath. He formed us from nothing. Jeremiah 1 says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you”. Let that actually sink in. A perfect and all knowing being knows who we are, what we will do, what choices we will make, and what our hearts purely look like- and yet He still loves us. He cherishes us. We are His creation. He is our Creator.
So in this ever growing world (there’s approximately 165,961 more now than when I wrote the first paragraph) it’s so easy to feel insignificant. To feel misplaced. To feel overlooked. Don’t. The Bible says that we are His workmanship. You are intelligently made with a purpose, and He loves you. He knows your name. He knows your heart. He knows your purpose, and He loves you.