The Number of Life

Balloon Classic, Colorado Springs, Colorado

I could say that I like the number three for theological reasons like the Triune God in whom we believe, but that would only be partially true. Three has a beginning, middle and end. Three represents the story of our lives which also have a beginning middle and end. As such, three is a number of completeness, of wholeness.

Three is also the number of the cross.

"Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left." Matthew 27:38 English Standard Version

To often we forget that there were three crosses on Golgotha. It is significant that Jesus hangs between the two. The men nailed to their crosses next to Jesus were alike and different from each other.

They were both criminals. They were getting the just reward for their crime. We might consider their punishment harsh, and maybe it was, but there was no denying that they, not Jesus, deserved their fate.

However these two criminals were quite different. One of the criminals was defiant to the end, demanding that Jesus save all three of them. The other, resigned to his fate, looked to Jesus as his only hope even as he was dying.  

Through the gift of God's grace may we hear the words of Jesus spoke to this man at the beginning, middle and end of our lives: "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

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Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012-2014 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.