Are There More Leaves in The World or Stars in The Universe Mr ChatGPT?

This month we started reading the Bible chronologically. This means I'm in Genesis (after a pit stop in Job) and I have been reading the account of Abraham and God's incredible promise to make a great nation from him. There is something in it though that is always lost on me, and that's the multitude of stars in the sky.

“Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”  And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:5-6

And then again in Genesis 26 Isaac is reminded of this promise to Abraham, that is now set for him.

"I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

It's repeated in scripture, this promise of descendants, "as many as the stars".

Israel is reminded several times (Neh 9:22-24, 1 Chron 27:23, Deut 1:10). I was taught that when something is repeated we should give it attention - and likely not feel 'meh' about it.

Here's my struggle, I think it's cool, I see the bigger picture in light of our redemption, but from where I stand in the world (and thanks to light pollution) the stars are distant, little dots far removed and not something I relate to.

When I look into studying the universe and how vast it is, my head is not able to wrap around and consider it. It's too wide, too vast, too overwhelming and that means I can be prone to gloss over this detail.

And then that had me thinking... what about the leaves?!

See leaves... leaves I can relate to.

I know them.

I can see them, touch them, even smell them, some people even smoke and eat them (but that's conversation for another day). Either way leaves feel much closer than stars.

And that there ended up being my question. Are there more leaves in the entire world than there are stars?

If I could semi-fathom the extreme amount of leaves,

then I could get a grasp of it in relation to the stars

and therefore start processing how incredibly far reaching

this blessing from God is to us all.

How many leaves are there in the entire world? Could we even deduce that? My kids and I started discussing and having a go guessing how many would be just in our yard. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions? My 4 year old confidently said 479.

But we weren't content. If we couldn't guess our yard, how would you guess the world? But it was a helpful and relatable way for us to think of God's covenant with Abraham and so it was only fitting we continued our quest for truth. We needed an answer, even if my 4 year old was very content with his.

So I went to the world wide web and ended up asking Mr ChatGpt. And here's the answer....

Scientists estimate there are around 100 billion galaxies, each with 100 billion to 1 trillion stars. That puts the number of stars in the observable universe at roughly:

100 billion × 100 billion = 10²² stars (that’s 10 sextillion stars).

Now for the leaves,

• There are an estimated 3 trillion trees on Earth.

• If even a modest-sized tree has 50,000 leaves, then:

3 trillion trees × 50,000 leaves = 150,000,000,000,000,000 leaves= 1.5 × 10¹⁷ leaves

But that’s a conservative estimate. Larger trees can have hundreds of thousands of leaves. So other estimates push the total number of leaves up to:

10¹⁸ to 10²⁰ leaves.

The Answer?

• Stars in observable universe: ~10²²

• Tree leaves on Earth: ~10¹⁸ to 10²⁰ (possibly higher)

So while stars still outnumber leaves, it’s surprisingly close — especially considering how small Earth is compared to the whole universe!

Did you get that?

There is likely more stars in the universe than there is leaves in all of the world.

And God chose to use this imagery to display his blessing to all his people. The Gospel has to go out to all the nations because it's blessing and life giving power is far greater than we can comprehend.

So what does this mean for us?

When God told Abraham his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky, he was displaying how far, wide, high, deep his love was for his people. He was giving Abraham & now us the strength to start comprehending how unending God's love is. And it's all so that every single one of us that profess Jesus Christ as King can come to know the love of Christ and be filled with the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:18-19).

God delivered this message of hope to Abraham to remind his people that he will once again dwell with us both now and not yet. He is with us now, the Advocate dwelling within and yet we look forward to that day when all the stars are numbered and God's people are called home.

Here his descendants will come together, outnumbering the stars and filling the heavens and the earth singing HOLY HOLY HOLY IS THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.

Finally, we will fully know, see and feel the wonder of God's presence for all of eternity.

And guess what? You and I will be able to celebrate that together, I honestly cannot wait!