Thought of the day, October 9, 2022.

¹⁰ “Have them make an ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high” (Exodus  25: 10).

Dear Friends, I greet you today in Jesus’ name.

In our world today, we hear and are surrounded by numbers everywhere. We hear of interest rates, inflation rates, mortgage rates, pollution rates, COVID rates, unemployment rates, etc. All these make us sometime feel, the darkness of this world is getting darker, but let us remember our Lord Jesus Christ was also born in troublesome times and He is near us and with us in all our troubles.

 In the Bible, we encounter various numbers such as: the creation of the world in Genesis being completed in 6 days (6 being a perfect number) and God resting on the seventh day, 144000 being the number of saints sealed in Revelations 7:4, etc.. We even hear of the number of 666 (the number of the antichrist) in Revelation 13:18.

In Mathematics, there are some special numbers one of which is the irrational number 1.61803398875… represented by the Greek letter Φ (Phi- a number is known as the “golden ratio”). Leonardo Fibonacci (born 1170) a contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi got this number out of this mathematical problem. “If a pair of rabbits take a month to mature and produce a new pair of rabbits every month after that, what would be the total number of rabbits in a year?” Presuming each pair is a male and female and that no rabbits dies, Fibonacci was able to come up with this sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, .., …… Dividing each number by the number before leads to a result close to 1.618… which is the golden ratio (an irrational number).

The Fibonacci sequence occurs throughout creation. If we look at the number of leaves coming out of a single stem on a plant, we find they follow the Fibonacci sequence. Buildings like Noah ark or ark to house the Ten Commandments (Exodus 25:10), etc. have walls are in the ratio 1: 1.618. Most paintings aesthetically pleasing to see, like that of Van Gogh’s “Mother and Child” has Mary’s face perfectly fitting into a “golden rectangle or ratio”. The golden ratio is a sign of perfect beauty. In the Bible, we come across another rule known as the “Golden rule” that is treating others as you would like to be treated (Matthew 7:12). Linking the Golden ratio and the Golden rule, one sees “Beauty” and “Love”- two very important words much connected to one another. True love is beautiful and beauty is lovely. The two words Beauty and Love are difficult to define from our finite vocabulary but they are virtues we should aspire to. We may not be able to calculate the golden ratio like Leonardo Fibonacci, but we can learn to; truly love each other unconditionally as God loves us.

 Dear Friends let remember and abide by these the Biblical words in 1 John 4:7-8: “everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” Amen.

Prayer:

Lord God of all creation, when we think of the vastness of creation and our place in it, we cannot help but wonder your omnipotence and your mighty power. Help us think not of things temporary but focus on the things eternal. May we also be always reminded that, it was because you loved us so much that you sent your Son to die for us. Thank you Lord and to You shall we always sing our praises. Amen.