13 - An Unlucky Number?
There are so many people out there that think some numbers are lucky and some numbers that are unlucky. In the Chinese culture, anything that has a '4' in it is just bad -- it means death. Generally anything that has an '8' in it is good -- it means fortune (except in the case where you have a '5' in front of the '8' which would mean fortune is going away). Other complications aside, '13' is the infamous unlucky number in Western culture. You go into lifts in buildings and you will often see that the 13th Floor is removed from the lifts.
On a plane trip back home from New Zealand, I was sitting next to a boy that was part of the tour group I was with. A young intelligent boy. Good memory and high adaptability skills were just two of his many qualities that slowly revealed to me during the trip back home. We were playing with the toys that were in the Children's toy pack that was given to him by air-hostess (and mind you, those games do really kill a lot of time!). After a while, we came across to a packet of cards. We started playing Big2 and since only me and him played, I had to tell him to deal 13 cards for each of us before we could start playing. He began telling me that '13' is an unlucky number and insisted that he had to deal '14' cards before he became lucky again (obviously, he was not aware of the Chinese superstitution :P).
I asked him why he thought '13' was unlucky. He told me a few reasons of which I now do not recall, but one of them was that Jesus had 12 good apostles, and it was the 13th apostle that betrayed Jesus, so 13 is a very unlucky number. Of course, I did tell him that Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus was one of the twelve (Mark 3:16-19 NIV).
After finding a succesor of Judas for the group of 12 apostles (Acts 1:26), Paul is like a "13th" apostle chosen and called by God to preach his Good News. Paul has done many things to serve God.
We should serve God in whatever we do. As Christians, we are all that "13th" apostle of Christ. What is so bad about '13' then? No one can serve two masters. As the Creator of everything that we see and everything that we don't see, God has everything planned. It is not the number that gives us that luck, it is God who gives us everything. So why believe certain numbers are cursed or bring us luck?
On a plane trip back home from New Zealand, I was sitting next to a boy that was part of the tour group I was with. A young intelligent boy. Good memory and high adaptability skills were just two of his many qualities that slowly revealed to me during the trip back home. We were playing with the toys that were in the Children's toy pack that was given to him by air-hostess (and mind you, those games do really kill a lot of time!). After a while, we came across to a packet of cards. We started playing Big2 and since only me and him played, I had to tell him to deal 13 cards for each of us before we could start playing. He began telling me that '13' is an unlucky number and insisted that he had to deal '14' cards before he became lucky again (obviously, he was not aware of the Chinese superstitution :P).
I asked him why he thought '13' was unlucky. He told me a few reasons of which I now do not recall, but one of them was that Jesus had 12 good apostles, and it was the 13th apostle that betrayed Jesus, so 13 is a very unlucky number. Of course, I did tell him that Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus was one of the twelve (Mark 3:16-19 NIV).
After finding a succesor of Judas for the group of 12 apostles (Acts 1:26), Paul is like a "13th" apostle chosen and called by God to preach his Good News. Paul has done many things to serve God.
We should serve God in whatever we do. As Christians, we are all that "13th" apostle of Christ. What is so bad about '13' then? No one can serve two masters. As the Creator of everything that we see and everything that we don't see, God has everything planned. It is not the number that gives us that luck, it is God who gives us everything. So why believe certain numbers are cursed or bring us luck?
