Many people don’t like the number 13.  Think it’s unlucky!  My mother always warned us never to open an umbrella in the house.  Why would we do that?  Except that the upstairs shower did leak through the kitchen ceiling!  Superstition is plain stupid…if you believe in it.  I like the number 13!  I was reading in Newsweek Magazine that Millburn High School, where I graduated from,  is the 13th highest rated high school in the United States that year!  100% graduation rate with 99.5% college bound.

I’m always grateful for the education I received in my hometown.   College prep classes, the norm.  Talk of college and university, common chat from earliest grades onward.  Didn’t matter if you were the son or daughter of a New York City corporate CEO or the son of a housepainter.  That one would be me!   I got the same education that the CEO progeny received.  All that was needed was to apply myself.  That was equality in my hometown.

Now I know that there’s something much better than a top-notch education.  You guessed it.  It’s knowing the Lord.  Regardless of your background, the Lord is there for each one.  We support a girl named Irene in one of the poorest countries in the world today, Burkina Faso.  The population of her country is 13 million people.  Half of able-bodied adults are unemployed, while those who have a job only make about $44 per month.  Our monthly support, a drop in our bucket, allows her to learn about Jesus and the Bible, get an education, be properly fed, and have fun playing with other children in a safe Christian child-development center.  She now knows Jesus.  A little girl in a poor country, the daughter of poor parents struggling to make ends meet like none of us reading this today know anything about.

God’s big on equality when it comes to belonging to His family.  As a matter of fact, it’s harder for the rich man…well, you know the story(Matthew 19: 16-24).  Let me recommend that instead of tooting your horn about your old high school(!), how about getting wisdom from the Lord.  That’s what I read about in Psalm 107: 43–‘Who is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.’  His door, wide open to all.  His wisdom, far greater than any education found here on earth.

No matter if you’re old or young, rich or poor, black or white, or whatever beautiful color God has made you,  His truth is there for the taking…from His Word, the Bible.  And, for believers in Jesus, the graduation rate to heaven is 100%!  Can’t get any better than that!

Prayer:  Lord, we pray that people fallen on hard times would come to know your wonderful love and help.   In Jesus’ name.  Amen.