Sometime next month the world population will surpass 8 billion.
To put this in perspective, consider that the global population first exceeded 1 billion in the early 1800s, 2 billion in the late 1920s, 3 billion around 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1999, and 7 billion just 11 years ago in 2011 (per census.gov and worldometers.info). Picture a bar graph with that kind of growth!
Just think: a billion is a thousand million. Eight billion people is enough to fill Lincoln Financial Field 118,354 times. If it took one hour to fill and empty the stadium, working around the clock it would take over 13 years to seat 8 billion people. Mindboggling.
God told our first parents to be fruitful and fill the earth (Genesis 1:28), and they complied! Two centers of population concentration are China (1.426B) and India (1.417B), and India’s population is projected to bypass China’s next year (pewresearch.org).
Suffice it to say: there’s a massive and increasing human presence on this earth. Let’s ask two questions: 1) How does God view the throngs of humanity? 2) How does he want us to respond?
1) God says that every human being is made in his image (Genesis 1:26) with the capacity to know and trust in him (the Lord has put “eternity in our hearts,” Eccl. 3:11). Further, the God who knows the name of every star (Isa. 40:26) also knows the number of hairs on each person’s head (Matt. 10:30). From macro- to micro-creation, from the massive to the miniscule, the Lord creates and sustains and reigns over all things—including 8 billion souls.
2) So be still. And step out in love—whether for “neighbors” or, in some cases, for “enemies”—all are precious persons to whom we must extend the love of Jesus (Matt 22:39; Luke 6:27, 35). So we shouldn’t respond with fear, or dismay, or indifference, but with active faith in Jesus that takes steps to proclaim his gospel to the world—even to the least-reached people groups (Matt. 24:14).
