Number 74

Do you ever think that you must find a meaning for everything that happens? Well, we are taught that everything happens for a reason, right? So...

I was taking a bath one day last Fall and just being lazy, soaking in my bubbles, reading a great book. After starting to wrinkle, a real clue is that the water is getting cool, I put my book down and started to scrub and shave my legs.

All of a sudden, something seemed to fall from the sky/ceiling in a floating nosedive...ever so slowly. It landed on my freshly-shaved knee. It was a small piece of white paper with the black number, 74, typed or stamped on it. My, I thought, I wonder what this could mean? Could it be a message FROM ABOVE?

I thought of all the things Number 74 could be and all the things it was not. Well, 76 is a 'famous' number, as in "76 Trombones", a song my Aunt played on the piano and my mom taught us to sing. But, I didn't know a song with the number 74 in it.

I knew a rhyme with "four and twent blackbirds" but I didn't know a poem or rhyme with a Number 74 in it.

I tried numbering my relatives and friends. I tried to think of someone age 74 that I was maybe supposed to call...or help bathe...or shave her legs...nothing seemed to make sense. So, I sat it on my dressing table and everyday looked at it as I passed. Many days, it made me ponder this mystery...I sometimes paid no attention for long periods of time.

Almost a year went by and one day, while in the tub, doing just about the same thing I do all the time...it happened again. This time it was Number 26 and I saw it coming, as I placed my bottle of bodywash back on the shelf over my tub. I think it was the inspector number! I wonder if Number 74 knows how much he/she made me think this last year? I also believe my Father in heaven must have had a good chuckle. If He meant anything by it...it is still a mystery to me.

I like the fact that I don't know it all, because I still keep discovering, uncovering mysteries about the One who loves me more than anyone!