The “Magic” of the Number Four
When I was a young girl growing up in the NASCAR-lovin’, Piedmont-area of North Carolina, I was invited to a red-clay track to watch my first stock-car race. The energy surrounding me was electric as I picked out a car to pull for; and, because I liked its red and black color, and the fiery, yellow blazes painted down its side panels, it just “spoke” to my sense of danger. Not only was I elated when it won—not by inches, but by yards—but since this speedster was emblazoned with the number four, I decided this would forever be my “lucky” number.
Throughout the years, I’ve maintained the love of this number for its sturdy appearance of being able to stand on “one leg” like the stalwart flamingo. And the fact it’s the only number that has the same number of characters as its value in the English language, that must be significant in itself, right?
I was married in the fourth month of the year and have four children. Four is repeated twice in my house address, but luck no longer has any value or meaning in my life. That misspent belief ended in 2001 when I realized that, like horoscopes, such folly had no place in my life.
I was at the ripe old age of 54 (there’s that number again), when I finally connected the dots to realize that religion had been replaced with a relationship with Jesus Christ, and as a result, my life has never been the same.
Then, in 2015, I learn I had been given four, yes … count them … four Spiritual Gifts, of which I’d never been aware – Faith, Writing/Teaching, and Administration. I decided, immediately after learning this reality, to spend the rest of my life glorifying God with the creative abilities He’d given me. And then I discovered another new and interesting detail:
“The number four, composed of three + one, denotes that which follows the manifestation of God in the Trinity, that is, His creative work. It is the number of the corners of the earth, and so speaks of earthly completeness and universality. Being the first of the numerals admitting of simple division, it marks, too, weakness. Four, then, is symbolic of universality, of creation, of man in his relation to the universe, and because of man’s failure toward God, of weakness.” From: Numbers in the Bible by Robert D. Johnston.
So God has allowed me, albeit in my “later years,” the desires of my heart to work “creatively,” but may I never forget my ideas are nothing without Him, and any success I may garner is of His doing, not my striving. Daily I am encouraged by the Truth: “Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:3.
All of us were born with Spiritual Gifts. I challenge you to find yours, and then it’s just a matter of obedience. It’s just that simple … and … just that hard—but there’s absolutely no magic to it!
3/7/16