Favorites or Longshots?

Since we've been talking about numbers lately here, try this one: 2,598,960.

That's reportedly the total number of five-card combinations possible in a 52-card deck.  We learned this from a Business Insider article on poker odds.  It's an article that's pretty clunky to us, with lots of photos -- and we're not sure it's helpful for players, because it doesn't figure in two-card combinations you might be dealt.

But here's another number to ponder: the odds of a single card turning into a straight flush are 0.00154%.  That statistically is a longshot.

And to be honest, the odds of you reading this may be even higher.  You have to be alive.  You have to be at a computer, tablet or smartphone.  You have to have this blog called up, out of millions of websites.

We thank you for defying those odds and reading this entry.  But how about even bigger odds than that?  You're on a planet that isn't too close to the Sun, so you melt - or too far away, so you die from extreme cold.  In fact, you may be on a part of the planet that has a range of seasons and temperature changes.

The odds of that happening are so ridiculously high that we think there's only one sound conclusion for it:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. - Genesis 1:1

The odds of everything evolving into the position you're in probably are even higher -- because there's no guiding hand to put everything in a proper place.

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree than will never pass away. - Psalm 148:5-6

So far as we know, the Earth and other planets have kept the same orbit around the Sun for thousands of years.  Can any evolutionary theory really explain that?  Consider what "wisdom" poetically proclaims:

"I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep...." - Proverbs 8:27-28

This is Thanksgiving week in the U.S.  We hope you take time not only this week, but every week, to thank God for all he's provided you -- whether it be a big win at the poker table, a living body for playing poker, or a world where it's physically possible.  Make God your favorite, and show it in living a life that's pleasing to Him.