The Year of Jesus

I’m a numbers gal. Not in a math way, but in a cosmic, serendipitous kind of way.

For example, anytime my kids and I would see 11:11 on the clock we would do butterfly kisses. We also celebrated November 11, 2011 (11-11-11) with an icecream sundae bar, complete with 11 toppings, eating at 11:11 at night.

Crew is my favorite child simply because he gave me a symmetrical birthdate to work with 05-15-05. The other kids’ birthdates are a hodge podge of random numbers I can’t keep track of.  They left me no choice. 😉

I was buying pie for pi day on 3/14/15 at 9:27 (Pi is 3.14159265…) Basically, I was buying pie at exactly Pi- rounded to the nearest ten millionth. I have the receipt to prove it. The cashier and I high fived over the beauty of it all.

So you can imagine my delight when I connected some cosmic numerical dots about this year- 2023….

Dot #1: THE YEAR OF JESUS

Because we are studying the New Testament in our Come, Follow Me curriculum, the “Don’t Miss This” podcast declared this “The Year of Jesus.” I was excited about this declaration because Jesus is my favorite and the only thing I know for sure right now. It’s always been my mothering mission to help my children know Him, so I could get on board with this theme.

Dot #2: THE NUMBER 7

Then I was listening to “Scripture Gems” S0402 and they were talking about how Matthew strategically used the number 14 to show that Jesus came from the lineage of David as prophesied. The name “David” has a numerical value of 14 in Hebrew. They also made the connection that 14 is seven doubled and “the number 7 … is the number signifying perfection and completeness. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of perfection and completeness.”

Plus the number seven is a big deal in the Bible.

Christianity.com’s article, “What Is the Biblical Significance of the Number 7?” noted several different ways the Bible showcases the number seven:

• • • • • seven colors in a rainbow
        • seven days of creation
        • forgive 70 x 7
        • leper washed  seven times
        • seven phrases in the Lord’s prayer
        • seven phrases from the cross

      and much more…

It also stated, “the number seven connotes such concepts as completion and perfection, exoneration and healing, and the fulfillment of promises and oaths.” Completion. Perfection. Freedom. Healing. Fulfillment. Sounds just like Jesus. I was convinced that the number seven represents Jesus!

Dot #3: THE YEAR 2023

Then I connected the best cosmic dot of all.

I remembered that it is common in numerology to add up groups of numbers until you get down to a single digit. This single digit gives insight and meaning into what is important for or what is at the core of the group of numbers. You can do this with your house numbers or birthdates for example.

So I added up 2023 and 2+0+2+3=7!!

My numbers heart leapt. 2023=7 and 7 represent Jesus. 2023 literally IS the year of Jesus!

So I’ve decided to really embrace the idea and make this my personal year of Jesus. I have four goals to support my theme:

• • • Watch The Chosen
    • Memorize The Living Christ
    • Read the New Testament
    • Study one name of Jesus per week

I am at a point in my testimony and my worship where I need to go back to basics. So “The Year of Jesus” felt right and with the numbers to back it, it turned from a nice theme to my serendipitous focus.