Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, whose birth we are celebrating now until Epiphany on January 6th.
Two hundred.
That’s how many Letters to the Saints I have written, week by week, month by month, year by year, thus far. Hopefully they have addressed some of the happenings in the world, in the church, and perhaps even in your own life.
Two hundred. It’s not a special number really. Forty is much better. In the Bible forty signifies a lifetime as people on average lived to about that age. A lifetime translated into wandering forty years in the wilderness. It symbolized the days of Noah and the Flood, and the number of days Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after his baptism.
Now that we’re talking about numbers, twelve is a good one. When one multiplies three (the vertical heaven, earth, and hell) and four (the horizontal four corners of the earth) we have twelve, a number that symbolizes wholeness and completeness. Thus, we have twelve months of the year, twelve tribes of Israel, the Twelve (one of several groups of disciples surrounding Jesus), and the twelve days of Christmas.
Do the same with seven, the other whole and complete number, but add the three and four instead and you have the days of creation with the seventh being a sabbath day. It’s the number of days in our week, the number of “words” Jesus spoke from the cross, and the seven “I am” statements in John. Seven appears more than 700 times in the Bible.
How about four? Not only does it signify the four directions, but it is also the number of gospels giving us a “complete” view of Jesus. I like three even better. it is the number of the Trinity, the number of afternoon hours the sky was black as Jesus hung on the cross, and the number of days Jesus was in the tomb. Two? Light and dark. The Old (Hebrew Bible) and New Testaments. Good and evil. The list of dichotomies goes on and on. One? There is only one God. Enough said.
You see, numbers mean a lot in the Bible. Pause whenever you come across a number because it means something, no matter how obscure it may seem. The writers took numbers seriously, as did their culture, and to unlock their meaning gives an added depth to our understanding of their world and ours.
So, finally, we come to 365. Interestingly, it is the number of “thou shalt nots” in the Torah which seems exhausting to me if I were to try and keep count. It is also the number of days in the year, of course, and as I look back on them in 2023, I wonder how many I can remember. I know I remember some good ones, and some difficult ones, but the rest become a blur.
I read once that we should number our days. Can’t remember what it means anymore but it sounds good. I may try to do this in 2024. Name them, even, because each day is precious and won’t come back again. Yes, I will try this year. I don’t want to miss out on any day, anymore.
Grace and peace and remembering this is the day the Lord has made.
Harry