“Isaiah maintained this same emphasis: ‘If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered and the sum labeled “chosen of God,” They’d be numbers still, not names; salvation comes by personal selection. God doesn’t count us; he calls us by name. Arithmetic is not his focus. Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth: If our powerful God had not provided us a legacy of living children, We would have ended up like ghost towns, like Sodom and Gomorrah.'” Romans 9:27-29 (MSG)

Our Heavenly Father’s focus is not on numbers, for even though He is the greatest of mathematician, numbers mean nothing to Him. Rather, He is a personal God who cares about us and wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us based on genuine love. Despite the fact that He already knows everything there is to know about us, the good and the bad alike, He doesn’t condemn us; rather, He loves us genuinely with a love so profound that it is way deeper than anything we’ve ever experienced on Earth.

Because of His endless love, God’s dream is for everyone to be saved: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:3-4 (NKJV). After all, whether we are loving or lost, in rebellion or not, we are His children, and He will always call us by name: “I’ll lead you to buried treasures, secret caches of valuables- Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, GOD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.” Isaiah 45:3 (MSG).

Sadly, humans often prefer numbers to names. Remember the Holocaust? All the prisoners at Auschwitz, for example, had no names. Instead they were nothing but numbers. Much easier to eliminate something that has no name. Who would ever miss 7925423?

While the Germans were busy eliminating the Jews in Poland at an exponential rate, the pharmacy on Place Bohaterow Getta did the exact opposite. The owner, Tadeusz Pankiewicz, was Polish, and despite the fact that his pharmacy was on the main square of the Krakow Ghetto from which the Jews were herded aboard trains and transported to the nearby Auschwitz/Birkenau extermination camps, the Germans allowed him to continue his work as a Pharmacist. What he actually did, however, was far more than simply dispensing medication…

Each day Pankiewicz and his staff saw thousands of Jews deported. He knew he had to do something, and he began to falsify documents so that Jews could avoid deportations. In addition, he provided food and medicine to the persecuted. These people were far more than mere numbers to him. Rather, he saw their true value as human beings, beloved by God. Because of his efforts, many, many Jews were saved.

Numbers may be fun, but getting to know others is way more important.

“Good morning number 689945648.”

“Who are you talking to?”

Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “Radical Grace From the Book of Romans”, please click here.)