Rashi comments that the counting of the nation of Israel indicates G-ds love for the children of Israel......(refer to RAshi)

The desert is directly related to G-ds love For Israel........In Jeremiah (2:1-2) it states the following, "The word of G-d came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem , saying, I (G-d) remember in your (Israel)favor, the devotion of your (Israel) youth (early years).....When you (Israel) went after me (G-d) into the desert, in a land that was not sown (without food)"..........When the Jews left egypt, they followed G-d into the desert due to their abundant simple faith in Hashem.

This simple faith is a great source of merit for the Jewish people. In addition, the desert itself represents simple faith......A desert is very elemental-----simple to the core......It is our simple faith in G-d which arouses G-ds love for the nation.....When the verse states (1:1) "in the wilderness of Sinai" in reference to counting, it is teaching us that the very thing that arouses G-ds love is simple faith, as represented by the desert..

We must all strive to reach the lofty level of simple faith without any doubts.Knowing G-ds existance is so powerfull a concept that all intellectual speculation seems small in comparison......Have a good Shabbos