Numbers

As I write this ‘thought for the week’ it is summertime and cricket is here with a series of test matches against India. I don’t want to bore you about cricket, but basically the team that scores the most runs is the winner. The team bowling have to get the batting side all out for as little runs as possible.  Just to let you know how a commentator would tell you the score line, they would say a team is, for example, one hundred and fifty for six. This would mean that the batting side had
scored 150 runs, but had six of their team out, by being bowled, caught etc. So the
commentator says, 150 for 6. Please stay with me!

The other day in one of these test matches the score at one point was 123 runs scored for the loss of five wickets and the commentator relayed the score as 123 for 5 and then exclaimed, “that is 12345 and that doesn’t happen very often”. It’s just numbers I guess.  But then I realised, being in July, I had noticed in our diary that something was happening on the 24th and realised that we write it as 24/7.
Needless to say, as I wrote 24/7 I was lifted up by knowing that God loves us 24/7, every hour, every day, year in, year out.

The great evangelist, Billy Graham, said, “God proved His love on the cross, when Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, “I love you.””
I am reminded of Psalm 23:6 which says in the NIV, “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” ─ endless 24/7s.