Innumerable

Lent 2012  A Clean Heart, Create in Me  C.S.Lewis
Sunday, March 4                                        Genesis 15:5

How many people are in your family?  If we consider our family of birth, our family by marrige, our family of friends, our family at work and play, our church family, our faith family, and the family of humanity are we truly innumerable?  7,026,173,100 is the population when this blog was written.  How can we be innumerable if I can find a number to quantify us?  God promises that Abram's descendents will be more plentiful than the stars in the night sky.  Okay so maybe we are counting generationally. 107,602,707,791 people are estimated to have ever lived on earth, so again is this innumerable? 
Perhaps God's promise to Abraham is bigger than data and statistics.    How often has numerical growth led to suffering? C.S. tells us that this blessing is about suffering and redemption healing.  "All nations will be blessed by God's chosen people."  Perhaps this blessing of God is where numbers fail us.  We cannot count or even begin to understand where the seeds of God's promises and blessings will land and flourish.  Perhaps the point is that we are not to try to count.  I think when we get caught up in counting we start to compare.  
How often are churches judged by the size and scope of their ministry?  Is this scripture the source of this practice?  Maybe we sound concede that God's chosen people and their blessings are innumerable are get on with being a blessing to all nations.