Three....And More

Three times Peter denied Christ.  Three times on the beach Jesus questioned him about his love.  Those moments on the beach were not moments filled with judgment and guilt, but forgiveness and grace.  In Acts the saga of Peter continues.  After being blinded on the road to Damascus, he is without sight, food and water for three days.  (Acts 8:9)  In Acts 10 he sees a vision of a sheet filled with all kinds of creatures being lowered three times.  Three men show up at his gate to take him to the home of Cornelius.  Peter and his new companions arrive at the home of Cornelius at three o'clock in the afternoon.  The whole thing with Cornelius and Peter takes place over three days. 

 

Surely, Peter's experience must have caused him to pay special attention when three of anything showed up in the present part of his life.  In some spiritual circles, the number three is given special significance since it is also the number of the Trinity, but in Peter's case it might have served him as something which hollered out at him, "Pay attention.  God is about something!"  Now, while there may be nothing particularly Biblical about looking for "three" to show up in our life, it may be true that our experience with God has made us aware of how He has revealed Himself or spoken to us in the past. 

 

While there is no attempt here to introduce some new spiritual discipline, or to reveal some hidden spiritual secret about how God works, there is a suggestion learned from experience that the repeated occurrence of certain things in our life which have brought us into some encounter with God in the past may indeed be something which might be saying to us, "Pay Attention!  God may be stirring around!"  Maybe it has nothing to do with any numbers.  Maybe the moment calling us to pay attention comes in the shrill of a hawk, or the rain dripping off the edge of a roof, or anything which brings an unexpected and surprising reminder of God at work in our life in days gone by.