Count the number of stars in the sky.

It’s an impossible task, but it serves to illustrate a critical point in our efforts to merge faith and science. Science estimates that there are at least 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone. On top of that, there are an estimated 200 billion or more galaxies in the observable universe. When you start multiplying those numbers out, you end up with a whole string of zeros. One estimate suggests that the total number of stars in the universe would be equal to all the grains of sand on all the world’s beaches combined. More importantly, you end up with a concept that the human mind cannot truly grasp.

If we turn our attention to the other extreme, we might look at how many cells comprise the human body. Recent estimates put that number at 30 trillion. And, of course, each cell, regardless of its function, is made up of somewhere between 5 million and 2 trillion molecules, with each molecule is made up of 100 trillion atoms. Science has gone even further in determining that each atom contains smaller and smaller components.

So, how does this information apply to our faith?

Regardless of what denomination you embrace, the core principle is the belief in an entity we call “God.” And we may struggle with accepting the existence of a supreme being that we credit with creating everything in our universe. The reason for our struggle may simply be our inability to grasp the concept of a being that is capable of acts of creation.

It is not all that different than our efforts to grasp the numbers of stars or atoms. Those numbers are representative of something that we have no real experience with and no way of wrapping our heads around because we lack that experience. We have no real point of reference. So, we fall back on mathematics because we have some understanding, however basic.

Mathematics doesn’t help much when trying to visualize God. Neither does a spectrum of colors or a range of musical notes. There are colors we cannot detect with our eyes and sounds we cannot hear with our ears, but our science has determined that those extremes exist. Just because we cannot detect them, does not mean that they don’t exist.

And we need to apply that same understanding to our grasp of God.

We need to take it on faith.