Our class photo just before graduation. Can you make out a familiar face in the fourth row from the top, center? 🙂

FORTY years?!?! Really? I recently received a notice on Facebook that my high school classmates are organizing the 40th reunion of our Class of ’76 from Rainier Beach High School in Seattle! Can it really have been that long ago? While it may not seem quite like yesterday, it certainly doesn’t seem like 40 years ago! But I recently saw a list of other significant 40s circulate on several FB pages as well:

*Muhammad was forty years old when he first received the revelation delivered by the archangel Gabriel.

*Rain fell for “forty days and forty nights” during the Flood. (Genesis 7:4)

*Spies explored the land of Israel for “forty days.” (Numbers 13:25)

*The Hebrew people lived in the Sinai desert for “forty years”. This period of years represents the time it takes for a new generation to arise. (Numbers 32:13)

*Moses’ life is divided into three 40-year segments, separated by his growing to adulthood, fleeing from Egypt, and his return to lead his people out. (Acts 7:23,30,36)

*Several Jewish leaders and kings are said to have ruled for “forty years”, that is, a generation. Examples include Eli (1 Samuel 4:18), Saul (Acts 13:21), David (2 Samuel 5:4), and Solomon (1 Kings 11:42).

*Goliath challenged the Israelites twice a day for forty days before David defeated him. (1 Samuel 17:16)

*Moses spent three consecutive periods of “forty days and forty nights” on Mount Sinai

*One of the prerequisites for a man to study Kabbalah is that he is forty years old.

*Before his temptation, Jesus fasted “forty days and forty nights” in the Judean desert. (Matthew 4:2, Mark 1:13, Luke 4:2)

*Forty days was the period from the resurrection of Jesus to the ascension of Jesus. (Acts 1:3.

*In modern Christian practice, Lent consists of the 40 days preceding Easter. In much of Western Christianity, Sundays are excluded from the count; in Eastern Christianity, Sundays are included.

With all these significant 40s in mind, I guess a 40th class reunion isn’t so ominous after all!