“A complete twenty-four-hour period is not a complete day in the true sense of the word. Nor is a full seven days necessarily a complete week. A complete day is a day in which we fulfilled our Divine missions, we carried out Retzono shel Makom (the will of G-d). G-d asks of us to count seven complete weeks. He wants weeks that are not only complete in their measurement of 49 complete time units, but also of seven weeks of Divine mission accomplishment. Divine mission accomplishment gives meaning and completeness to time.
Counting the Omer is not a nightly ritual of formulistic utterance. It is focusing our attention every evening on a day that has just unfolded before us. We are a day further in time from a point in space we are trying to escape: Mitzrayim, which means narrowness and limitation. We are a day closer to a point in space we crave to reach: Sinai. But have we also traveled on the fifth spectrum of meaning and value? Are we not only completing our time but also fulfilling our missions? Have we moved in that spiritual direction too? Are we merely filling space or are we also fulfilling the intent of the Divine infinite Space, Makom, Hashem Himself? This, the nightly counting is the challenge to self.