More on Sefirat HaOmer

Another beautiful idea:

When we were taken out of Mitzrayim, it was not because we truly deserved HaShem's salvation, really. We were on such a low of level of tuma(impurity) that had we stayed in Mitzrayim any longer, we would have been lost to HaShem.

At that time we were on the 49th level of tuma.
At the time of matan Torah, however, we jumped up to the 49th level of kedushah(holiness/purity)!
How did we possibly jump 98 levels in 49 days?

HaShem is pure chessed, as is obvious through His creation of the world. He had no reason to create the world, but did so anyway, for our sake.
So, in His goodness, He gave us 49 levels, just like that, raising us up to 0 by yetziat Mitzrayim.

We didn't work for that raise, it was a gift from HaShem.
The raising of our level from 0 to 49 is a different story -

From 0 to 49 - from the time of yetziat Mitzrayim to matan Torah - We worked on ourselves, in the same way we do now during the Sefirat HaOmer.

The working on our middot that we do now is, in a way, done in order to keep up a certain level of kedushah that we have in our days. However, it is NOT the same level of kedushah that we had at the time of matan Torah - That level was lost to us through the cheit ha'egel (sin of the golden calf).

This shows why working on ourselves - now during the Sefirat HaOmer or any other time during the year - is such an important aspect of Yiddishkeit. Our kedushah is what helps bring us closer to HaShem.