Happy Birthday

        Wow, how time flies!  I can't believe that once again it is my birthday, or should I say the Xth anniversary of my birth day.  And I just can't believe that I am now X years old.  Although, at times this past year I did feel more like 99 than X.  But God is good and I thank Him for X great years of life.
          Now how is your memory?  If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you should have no problem figuring out what X is.   All you need to do is add one to the age revealed in last year's blog.  That's simple math - old, modern or Common Core math. Now if your mind isn't that sharp anymore or if you didn't read last year's birthday blog, I'll give you a number of hints in case you want to find X.  And you thought this blog would be easy and quick to read.  Probably not.  And maybe you don't even care what X is.  Just know that it is high.

         Now X is the product of three prime numbers.  It has six divisors.  In the binary system it is 1001011.  Or in base three it is 2210.  Now, even more fascinating, it is palindromic in base 14 - 55 and in base 24 - 33.  Now that should make it easy.  But in preparing this I learned something new, it is also a Keith Number.  I never heard that term before, but X actually appears in a Fibonacci like sequence started from its base 10 digits.  Fascinating!  It is also a Nonagonal Number and a Pentagonal Pyramid.  So there!

          Now if you haven't solved this yet, this clue will give it away, especially for those of you who remember high school chemistry class.  It is the atomic number of Rhenium.  For you historians, X is also the age limit of Canadian senators.  I wonder why we don't have such a limit in the United States.

       And for you scholars of the Bible,  X was the age of Abraham when he left Haran.  And I think the thought of moving to a retirement home is tiring.  It is also the number of family souls that were sustained by Joseph in Egypt when he brought Jacob and his large family to live there.  And finally, it is the width of Noah's Ark.

         Unfortunately, other than me, nobody very famous was born on April 6, unless you want to count Bert Blyleven, a baseball player, or Janet Lynn, an Olympic star.   And nothing very noteworthy happened on the day I was born except that Craig Woods won the 8th Masters Gold Tournament with a 280.

         So another year has quickly passed.  And when you reach this point in life and have had some of the experiences that I have faced during the last year, you begin to realize that life passes quickly and only what is done for Christ is important. And you appreciate that He continues to give you more days because He still has something He wants to do through you.  And whether that is to continue to build a spiritual legacy for my children and grandchildren, or to be an encouragement and help to someone who is struggling, or to share the Gospel with another, or something else, it is vital to continue to serve the One who controls each day and each breath.  And you don't need to reach X years before you can realize the importance of this.   My desire is to continue to serve the One who has been so faithful to me for X years whether He gives me X, or X+1, or X+10, or even X+20 more years here on earth.  God is so good, all the time.

          Incidentally, rather than send me a card to me, maybe you can enjoy some of the cards that I might send to myself.

CARD 1

CARD 2

CARD 3

CARD 4