Sand sounds so unassuming. It’s right up there – or rather, right down there – with dirt, dust, and mud. It just sits there. It doesn’t do anything. And when you go to the beach? It gets everywhere! Sand is unimportant. It’s what we walk on.
But maybe not.
Without sand we wouldn’t have any roads, or any buildings. It’s the basic ingredient of any construction project. Without sand, we wouldn’t have glass. Not just for holding our favorite beverages, but for every computer screen, iPad or iPhone. Without sand, science’s reach would be shorter, as there would be no Hubble telescope or microscopes, and art would be less joyful… no magnificent Tiffany lamps or stained-glass Chagall windows at Hadassah Hospital.
The humble grains that mark time in an hourglass are the building blocks that make up our world.
So next time you are trying to get some of it out from under your fingernails, remember that when those tiny grains stand together, they are one of the most powerful forces of nature.
Maybe that’s why Hashem promised Avraham that his children would be like the grains of the sand. Maybe we too are humble when we stand alone like individual grains. But when we stand together great and mighty things can happen.
