My life is nothing more than a mass of numbers. It all started this morning with my first set of numbers when I woke far too early out of a deep sleep to be confronted by wife, also sleepless as it happens, wanting to know the time. What I meant to say was 'I don't know, can't you see my eyes are closed and it's still dark out there and my head is facing the opposite way to the clock and I'm not moving,' but I just managed to stumble out the first three words and since it was met with such a sigh of disapproval, there was no other road to travel except a one hundred and eighty degree swivel to face the dreaded timepiece which was shouting out the numbers 05:00 from its smug face. By the time I had dreamed a thousand dreams it would be displaying 07:00 so I made it sleepily down to the kitchen where I cut 4 grapes and 1 strawberry into my cereal before switching on the television and alternating between buttons 1 and 3 to find out the latest news and then resorting to teletext and punching in 101 to read the updates fro myself, followed by 160 for the local news and finally 301 and 390 to catch up on the national and local sport. And it was still only 07:10 when opened my daily readings at April 25th and then read John chapter 8 verses 37 to 42. But to be honest, you could have picked any morning this week and, apart from the early morning wakening, much of the same ritual would have been observed. One cup of tea and half a piece of toast later I was up getting dressed, having passed wife somewhere in the house a few minutes earlier and by 07:35 I was gone, ambling the one and a half miles to school at about 40 miles per hour, while quickly alternating between 909 and 1094 on the radio. And so it went on. I punched in the number code on the copier, ran 30 copies of the Friday test that contained 10 spellings, 20 Tables and 10 Mental Maths, counted the number of pupils absent (2), those present (28), those taking dinner (13) and those on free dinners (2), made two phone calls, sent one fax, marked 30 homeworks, distributed 10 old computers, watched a video about Columbus in 1492, left school at 15:25, had coffee with a friend at 16:00, went out with the family at night, punched in my card number, and finished this blog about 23:00.Isn't it amazing how much we can do with just 10 numbers? I've been thinking about all the numbers that dominate our lives, like birth days, birth years, birth months, wedding dates, death anniversaries, age numbers, credit card numbers, debit card numbers, expiry dates, PIN numbers, account numbers, national insurance numbers, mobile and land line phone numbers, fax numbers, house numbers, passport numbers, reference numbers, hymn numbers, bus numbers, car registration numbers, CD track numbers, radio station frequency numbers, television channel numbers and page numbers. And how certain numbers have an association with something in our history. Like number 7 that always reminds me of footballers like George Best, David Beckham and Kenny Dalglish or a local restaurant. Or 208 that helps me recall Radio Luxembourg that I used to listen to in my teens. And 99 that was a pop single all about balloons or an ice cream with a flake. 45s that were the vinyl singles we once bought or 33s that held a full album of songs.
And the Bible is just as full of numbers like the 10 commandments, 12 tribes of Israel, 4 Gospels, 12 disciples, 40 days and 40 nights, 30 pieces of silver, 2 of every animal, 969 years of Methuselah, the 3 gifts for the baby, 7 days marching around Jericho, 4 winds, 5,000 fed, 5 loaves, 2 fishes, 10 lepers, 5 foolish virgins, 3 score and 10, 6 days of creation, forgiveness of 70 times 7 and of course 99 safe sheep. And while these all are significant numbers, surely the most important is 3 that stands for the Trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son whom He sent to die for our sins and The Holy Spirit which He sends to be our Comforter and Guide when we accept Jesus as Saviour, 2 that reminds me of the thieves that died either side of our Lord and also that we have 2 ways we can choose to go and finally 1 way that leads to heaven and life everlasting. Jesus says 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' He is the 1 way but HE still cares about the 1 lost sheep. Does it add up?
