Sabbath Devotional :: Every Person Counts

census - Mormon Women for Ethical Government — .

Scripture is replete with references to God and His servants counting their people. As our nation prepares for its decennial census, a count of our country’s population, let’s reflect on some of the instances where we see a census or numbering taking place.

In the first chapter of the book of Numbers we read of God asking Moses to take a count of the Israelite community according to their ancestral houses, listing each and every name. Several chapters later, Moses is again directed to take a census or count and use it to apportion the land accordingly. In the Quran, we read in Maryam 19:94 of a Father that “has enumerated them and counted them a (full) counting.” Perhaps the most memorable reference to a census is in the telling of Christ’s birth story where Joseph and Mary, heavy with child, travel to Judea to be counted according to Caesar Augustus’ order.

The scriptures also offer a multitude of references to our Savior as a shepherd aware of each of His sheep. We read of a Savior that condescended from a heavenly throne to minister amongst the “least” of his brothers and sisters, meeting them at their station in life and offering up the spiritual provisions they were in need of. As a loving shepherd, he did not turn away from His sheep — rather, he sought them out, and one by one sat with them, broke bread with them, succored them, blessed and healed them. He knew the value and dignity of every individual person.

We have profound spiritual foundations that profess every human life is endowed with dignity and created in the grace of God’s image. This value is not tied to achievements, gender, race, or property; instead, it is the result of our mere existence as children of God. We have been taught to not be a respecter of persons but rather to welcome and count all in our fold — loving them and seeing to their needs. We have been commanded to love both our God and our neighbors. Christ’s ministry exemplified loving “the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” and loving “thy neighbour as thyself” as we read of the Shepherd constantly seeking out and attending His sheep. As we strive to follow this example, we realize, like Rabbi Johnathan Sacks so beautifully expressed, “We cannot love God without first honoring the universal dignity of humanity as the image and likeness of the universal God.”

Our baptismal covenant and our Savior’s Atonement connect us to our Heavenly Parents as well as each other. We are bound to love both our God and our brother and to belong to each other. This belonging requires us to strengthen each other and recognize the inherent dignity each person possesses. With personal dignity and value, we realize the need to apportion resources so that all can benefit and are allowed the opportunity to fulfill their potential.

The current census, like biblical censuses of yore, offers a means to identify each person and honor their dignity through the apportionment of resources and representation. As Census Day, April 1, approaches, it is important to recognize that the census is so much more than a democratic instrument. The census is a count of every person living in the United States, citizen or not. This count allows us to ensure that many of the needs of our brothers and sisters are met. A count of every person works to assure all children can receive an education despite their position in life. It helps to assure medical care is provided through Medicare and Medicaid. It helps divide and allocate monies to provide roads, hospitals, schools, and fire and police departments that are accessible by all. It provides representation for each person in our governments.

The census becomes an earthly means to allow all of us to recognize the spiritual nobility of our humanity. By completing the census and urging our brothers and sisters to do the same, we follow the example of our Shepherd and minister to the material needs of our human family in our earthly state.