One in a Septillion

Yesterday I spent all day in a kindergarten classroom in my home town, and I do believe my favorite part of the day is when the students learned about the stars. The teacher read them a book about a little boy who was trying to figure out how many stars there are in the sky. Each child had a different idea, ranging from 24 to "a hundred billion trillion." When asked why it is so hard to count the stars, students answered,
"because they're so far away," "because your arms get tired from counting," or "because they move."

The book concluded that there are way too many stars up there to count all of them, but even with the words "way too many," a good picture of just how many is still blurry. After recess, the students were asking questions about the milky way and the teacher (I do admire her so much for her skills) decided they would do some research as a class. The pictures of the milky way were gorgeous, and I felt so small thinking of the complexity and mystery of these faraway and captivating lights. A video was found that explained an as-accurate-as-it-gets estimate of just how many stars are in this galaxy. The conclusion- over a septillion. "My brain hurts," one little boy sighed. Mine did too, but oh how loved it made me feel!

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

The moon and the stars which You have ordained,

What is man that You are mindful of him,

And the son of man that You visit Him?  ~Psalm 8: 3-4