It’s census time again.  The 2010 Census is in full swing here in the United States.  Workers are all over our country are counting the population.  The same was true in the Israelite community in the book of Numbers.  In the scripture reading for today we read about the very first census.  God tells Moses in Numbers 1:1 to take a census of the people.  The passages that follow are an accounting of every person in the tribes of the descendants of Jacob’s sons.   Like US Census, these scripture passages aren’t the easiest of reading.  However, these passages give us a greater understanding of all the people of the area and the fact that God cares for them all.