Delving into the Concept of Sefiras HaOmer

Anyone counting toward something they long for counts down. So why do we count up the 49 days from Pesach to Shavuos? And if Torah is the point of leaving Mitzrayim, why not give it the moment we left? The Chinuch finds what Pesach is really for in a pasuk in Shemos, and Rav Pincus adds what these days are meant to build in us. A friend's careless comment to a couple without children for twenty years, and a wager that came with it, ends at the door of Rav Chaim Kanievsky.