“I’m curious about a certain day that comes THIS week,” was the first thing Rocky announced after he was introduced by Randy.
That got everyone’s attention since today was the first weekend before the 4th of July. The newspaper was full of articles and ads for the Independence Day celebration and the start of the Rodeo. What do you suppose Rocky was going to speak about today?
This was the monthly meeting of the Older Kids Corral at Mama’s Yummy Cafe. Ten couples sat around the big table with their coffee and donuts in the back room. They expected some interesting info, as this definitely piqued everyone’s attention.
“What month is it? What day is Friday? What year is it?” Rocky challenged them.
“It’s July, and here comes Friday, the seventh, and this is 2017,” Pauline spoke up first.
The rest nodded in agreement.
“So, what’s the big deal? Well, you’d figure it out, but I’ll give you the scoop,” smiled Rocky. “The numbers are 7, 7, 17. And we read about that number ‘seven’ in the Bible.”
“Oh, I know,” answered Allen. “The first mention of seven in the Bible is in Genesis. After the six days of creation it says God rested on the seventh day. In the second chapter, ‘On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.’”
“And how important was the seventh day?”
Rita found it first, “It says this in Exodus: remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy….”
Here Rocky spoke up again, “It’s interesting to do a search on biblegateway.com for the word ‘seven.’ It’s a total of 607, which is 523 in the Old Testament, and 64 in the New Testament. And ‘seven’ is 36 times in Revelation.”
He went on to say, “So, here’s what I’m curious about. This coming Friday will be 7-7-17. Is something important or really bad going to happen somewhere in the world?”
A lot of frowns greeted that statement.
Ginger offered this, “I think we’ll have to wait and see. So, what’s your point, Rocky?”
“That’s my point, but I’m going to add this . . .
“Do you remember that old-timey song ‘Trust and Obey’? If each of us are starting every day with a prayer to the LORD, thanking Him for His blessings and asking Him for help, protection, and wisdom, then we have a good start for that day with those ‘sevens’— as well as every other day.
“For each of us our attitude, our respect, our obedience to our Creator is the big issue of life. Yes, many Christian churches now hold their weekly services on Sunday, the first day of the week. But, the Jewish synagogues keep the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week as the holy day — a day of rest and worship. We’ll take a more in-depth look at that day of worship at our next meeting.
“Today I want us to zero in on the invitation we have from God. After we’ve committed our lives to Him, confessed our sins, received His forgiveness, then we don’t just plow ahead to do our own things, our own way. We’ve got eternal life in Heaven to look forward to. We’ll meet our Savior one day.
“So, do the numbers 7-7-17 have a special meaning? Pray and be ready for what comes.”
With a glance at his watch Rocky announced, “My twin sisters Pearl and Ruby will join me now in another old-timey song, “God Is So Good. We first sang this when we were little kids, 7 and 9 years old, at the morning service at Marshalltown Church of God.”
Do you remember that song from Sunday School?
“God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so good to me!
He answers prayer, He answers prayer, He answer prayer; He’s so good to me!
I trust Him now, I trust Him now, I trust Him now; He’s so good to me!”
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by Elaine Hardt ©2017
