Monday, November 29, 2010

The Perfect Number 7

I wanted to mark today as "Year Number Seven", seven years since we lost our son, Tyler. It is amazing how God can give us such peace with such a simple thing as a number. Nothing can ever take the place of Ty, nor do we want anything to. But I believe God has put this on my heart today to just give that little extra calm to my life and my memories. Thanksgiving is usually very hard on my heart, but this year was a Thanksgiving to truly be THANKFUL for - family... and all of them surrounding us and letting us love them and laugh with them.

Tyler's marker reads '777', and not by our doing. It was what was offered. But in a tragic time, it was a sign of peace to us.

In Scripture, we are given many instances of God's use of the number seven. It's perfectness.

Look at the BibleWheel.com has to say about the number seven:

1. God marked the Bible with the Number Seven because it is the fulness of God's revelation!

2. God marked the Bible with the Number Seven because it is His Oath! His Promise! His Covenant!

3. The phrase seven times is used frequently in Scripture to mark the work of God. The Levitcal Priests were told to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice seven times, Joshua was ordered to march around Jericho seven times, and Namaan was told to wash in the Jordan seven times to be cleansed of leprosy.

4. The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

5. Matthew 18:21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

6. Revelation 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

7. Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and herested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

The following is from Bible-History.com (more examples):

The Number 7

The number 7 perhaps speaks of perfection or completeness. God's complete provision in His dealings with men.

Some examples:

7 days make a complete week

7 colors make a perfect spectrum

7 great land masses form a complete earth

7 notes make a perfect scale

7 great bodies of water form a complete ocean

There were the 7 days of creation as well as many other examples throughout the Scriptures:

Zech 3:9 For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua: upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,' says the LORD of hosts, `And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

Rev 1:4 John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

To the Jew every 7th day was a Sabbath.

Every 7th year was a Sabbatical year.

After the 7th Sabbatical year was the year of Jubilee.

Every 7th month was holy and had 3 feasts.

There were 7 weeks between Passover and Pentecost.

The Passover feast lasted 7 days.

The feast of Tabernacles lasted 7 days.

At Passover 14 lambs (7 twice) were offered daily.

At Tabernacles 14 lambs (7 twice) and 70 bullocks were offered.

At Pentecost 7 lambs were offered.

The time of mourning the dead was fixed to 7 days.

and so on...

Seven continues to have symbolic prominence in the New Testament, with Jesus telling Peter that it is not enough that he forgive the brother who had sinned against him seven times, but "seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:21-22). Seven is also the number of Greek-speaking Christians appointed by the Twelve Apostles in Acts 6:3.

The New Testament concludes in a "great surge of sevens, with heptads, explicit and implicit, tumbling forth from many verses."

In the Book of Revelation there were:

The 7 letters to the 7 Churches.

The 7 Seal Judgements

The 7 Trumpet Judgements

The 7 Bowl Judgements

The 7 Golden Lampstands

The 7 Stars

The 7 Angels

The 7 Spirits of God

The Lamb with 7 Horns and 7 Eyes.

The 7 Lamps of Fire

The 7 Thunders

The Fiery Red Dragon with 7 heads and 7 Crowns.

The Leopard-Like Beast with 7 heads.

The Scarlet-Colored Beast with 7 heads.

The 7 Mountains

The 7 Kings

Now you all have a little insight into why the number seven means something to us today. It is the way things are to be, whether is it be pleasant or not.

But there is peace.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The History of Aprons


The History of 'APRONS'
(sent from my sister-in-law)
I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids..
And when the weather was cold Grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.
REMEMBER:
Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw. They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron - but love...


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

While You Were Sleeping

I hear him finally sleeping and undisturbed. He has slept so lightly the last 4 days and wakes to the slightest noise. So I will grab these few moments to tell his story.

My dear one only wanted to see a friend and shoot some pool on his way home from a practice session that ended early. All of which he did. One never knows though who you might meet while playing pool, hence the introduction of an anonymous pool player. After playing for an hour or two and visiting with his dear friend, he decides it's time to come home where he belongs. Anonymous pool player asks for a ride and after hearing the destination, my guy in his white hat knows it's on his way home and says, "Of course! No problem." One mile into the ride, it was lights out; cold cocked in the eye, wallet stolen, and woke up over two hours later in his car that had been parked at a closed gas station. Mind you, my man only has sight in one eye, and that was the one selected as the lights out switch. Keys were left in the car, briefcase still there, nothing else was gone except the money he had collected from working for the band. His kindness had turned into a nightmare for him.

How do people do this? What clicks in their heads to even have the thought come to them? Plus we are not that young anymore - why target an old guy?

I only write so facts be known. The world loves to embellish. But we have a God who loves us and he's taking care of things. We have been given the gift of choice; we are God's children, not his puppets. Wanted to say that because of all the "Why would God allow this to happen?" questions. This was the guy in the black hat's choice. And what we do with that happening and tragedy is OUR choice. And we choose to thank the Lord for my husband's life, family and close friends, the doctors, nurses and detectives.

We pray for the one who did this, as to what could be so awful in his own life that this was his choice. God knows. It is not for us to necessarily understand, and to be honest have been told not to even try.

We are still Bill & Karen, we are still the goofy couple with weird quirks. But nothing will hold us back from helping others or trying to do for those less fortunate. WE are fortunate, and blessed.