14

It was with a heavy heart that I realized that today is exactly one month from what would have been Piper’s and my 45^th Wedding Anniversary.   But if we could have had our way back in 1975, today would have been two days before our 45^th Anniversary.  You see, Piper and I were both born on the 14^th day of the month of the same year.  I came into the world on the 14^th of March and Piper followed suite precisely five months later in August of 1953.  I used to joke with her about how much older (and therefore wiser) I was than her, and she’d laugh and say “Yes, it’s true, I married an older man!”

I guess that’s why the number 14 became somewhat special to us.  I have always had a difficult time remembering people’s birthday’s, but because ours both fell on the 14^th, I never forgot Piper’s special day… Thank God, right!  When it came time to set our wedding date, we both wanted to get married on Saturday June 14, 1975 in order to add another 14 to our collection of special times.  But low and behold, we couldn’t do it.  I don’t recall the specific reason now, but I’m thinking that it had to do with the availability of either the church or the reception hall we planned to use.  We were both disappointed and after prayer and research, felt like the 12^th of July was the perfect date!  But then 14 years later, our youngest daughter was born on the 14^th of May, 1989!  We thought that was pretty special as well!

In later years, we continued to make some major moves on the 14^th of the month.  Piper and I moved to North Carolina on July 14, 2014.  After her passing five years later, Fiver and I, with the assistance of our younger son Jeremy, moved to Oklahoma on June 14, 2019.  So, it looks like the number 14 continues to have a special significance to us!

Biblically speaking, “the number 14 represents deliverance or salvation and is used twenty-two times in the Bible. The term "14th" is found 24 times in scriptures. The fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover, when God delivered the firstborn of Israel from death...  Being a multiple of 7, 14 partakes of its importance and, being double that number, implies a double measure of spiritual perfection. The number two with which it is combined (2x7) may, however, bring its own significance into its meaning, as it does in Matthew 1, where the genealogy of Jesus Christ is divided up and given in sets of 14 (2x7) generations, two being associated with incarnation.”*

I like the idea that the number 14 implies a “double measure of spiritual perfection.”  In my eyes, Piper who was born on the 14^th, was the perfect women for me… and funny thing… with every day that she’s gone, she gets more and more perfect in my eyes!  But I guess that I can justify that because of the saying that “Absence makes the heart grow fonder!”  I can also justify it Biblically as Paul declared in Ephesians 1:4 that “Before the creation of the world, God chose us through Christ to be holy and perfect in his presence.”  And there is absolutely no shadow of a doubt that Piper walked into His presence when she stepped through the veil of heaven a year and a half ago! 

I was thinking yesterday, that my love for Piper is what empowered me to do everything that she needed for me to do for her when she got sick without every experiencing a second thought… whether those responsibilities and tasks would be deemed as good, bad or ugly.  

The other thing I realized, was that my increasingly “intimate, experiential and very personal ‘knowing’ of the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ that He has for me and me for Him, in all its dimensions which goes far beyond any natural knowledge” gave me the faith to believe His Word and believe for Piper's best throughout the many difficult years we walked in the final journey of her precious life on the earth. ranslation) 

And to this day… I can’t stop thinking about and thanking Him for that incomparable level of LOVE that Christ has for me… as well as for each one of you too!  Can you imagine that?  

I can tell you without having to go through and count each usage, that the LOVE of God toward you and me is mentioned a lot more than 14 times in the Bible!  The number 14 definitely had a special meaning to Piper and I, and has a strong significance in the Bible as well… But God’s Love is what the Bible is all about… and THAT LOVE and the purpose of that LOVE in the personage of JESUS CHRIST, is the underlying theme of the Old Testament and the star of the New!  Take a look at it today… it’s guaranteed to change, enrich, empower and fill your life… and then overflow onto others!  

*https://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/14.html