This is the main story of my account with 137 and how I eventually (26 years later) tied it back to a true biblical meaning that has now changed my life and hopefully for others as well.

In late October/early-November 1990, my grandfather was diagnosed with terminal cancer and passed away a few weeks after the diagnosis. The events relating to his death are amazing and in 2016, I confirmed that the sequence of events tied directly to God, without a doubt and beyond any reasonable or skeptical coincidence.

My grandfather and I shared the same birthday, May 26. He was born May 26, 1914, I was born May 26, 1970. We had an interesting bond through this. He was a very private and humble man, probably the most humble human that I’ve ever known. We were with him during the last week of his life and stood by his bedside in his home when he passed away. Several years before, I had given him an old wind-up bell alarm clock, likely for Christmas. Here is a picture of that clock.

I’ve always had a fascination for clocks, even as a child, still do today. My grandfather proudly displayed this clock on top of his console television. He didn’t have to keep it there as there was an electric clock that was plugged in and hung on the wall right above it.

A few days before he passed, this old wind-up clock had run down and stopped. I specifically remember picking it up to wind it and then consciously put it back on the television, purposely not winding it. It was a noisy little thing and I thought the ticking might drive us a bit nuts as we were trying to keep it quiet for my grandfather who was lying on a hospital bed in the living room as he was on hospice.

During the day that my grandfather passed away, I could measurably see his decline, in blood pressure as well as his breathing. After a terrible and painful night before, he never regained consciousness. As his time drew near, we all surrounded his bed and watched him take his last breath and I saw his last heartbeats through his gown. It was the first time that I had ever seen anyone die.

At the very moment of his passing, my dad shouted, “Look at the clocks!” We looked over and instantly saw that the stopped wind-up alarm clock and the running electric clock were precisely the same time, not a single minute different. My grandfather passed away on November 26, 1990, exactly 76 years, 6 months, 0 days at precisely 1:37 PM.

The skeptic would say that there’s a 1/720 chance of this happening (60 minutes x 12 hours) – however, that was completely blown away earlier this year by seeing something I totally missed while looking closely at a picture of the clock and I’m sure now that one could not calculate any form of reasonable amount of probability that this is just a coincidental event. The stopped clock that coordinated with the death of my grandfather is an event that has forever changed my life. I still get those little goosebumps and chills when I think of it.

I always thought of that event as “well, I know there’s more to life than this, I just don’t know what it is or what it means.” Unfortunately, I was only able to recently understand the deeper significance of it. From 1990 until 2016, 26 years, I would wake up at night, precisely at 1:37 AM, sometimes 4-5 times each week. The moment I finally understood the message, I stopped waking at that time, near instantaneously. I now call this “God’s Beacon”, once the message was finally understood, He turned the beacon off. I do see it once in a while now and I’m excited when I do. It’s a reminder that He’s still there. So, why 1:37 AM instead of 1:37 PM? In my opinion, it has a bigger and memorable impact and God was intent on me recognizing it and eventually understanding His message.

Listening to Pastor Troy Brewer on the radio in 2016 of how God can sometimes speak to us through numbers, gave me an idea to search biblical scripture. Pastor Brewer mentioned that perhaps the numbers you are seeing relate to a scripture in the bible. This is something that I never thought of. Truth is, while I believed that God existed, I didn’t really read the bible or even pretend to understand much that was in it. So, a little Google searching and I tied 1:37 back to the only scripture that this would make sense to, Luke 1:37 – “For with God nothing shall be impossible”. In my heart, I felt that I was on the right path. To me, this particular scripture tells me everything I really need to know. This scripture can stand alone and be taken out of context as it tells a story by itself in just a few words. The occurrence of my grandfather’s death at precisely 1:37, the same time of a clock that previously stopped, it all seemed “impossible” – of course, the scripture just answered it.

Here’s the really interesting part that blew away any amount of skepticism and doubt. This message was validated by what I saw in 2018, two years after I had made the connection. I was looking at a picture of the clock on my computer and noticed something peculiar.

If you look closely at the clock, you’ll notice the model name on the face, “Gabriel”.

Well, guess who said Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible”? Gabriel is only one of two (good) angels named in the bible. The other is Michael. Gabriel is also known as “God’s messenger angel”. When I saw this, I remember thinking to myself, “are you serious?” Did I really just see this? Wow!

There are other events happened during my grandfather’s passing that again go beyond coincidence. These series of events cover the birth and the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, too long to explain here in this post and will be expanded on in other posts. There have been many other events within my life that I could now correlate to God’s communication and sometimes intervention.

Interestingly though, I haven’t exactly walked a good path of righteousness with God over the years and I definitely never felt deserving of worthy of God’s attention or forgiveness, but I’m forever grateful now for what I’ve experienced and I’ve made positive changes.

I haven’t been “religious”. I don’t really care for that term. I feel “religion” puts God in a man-made box with a set of man-made rules and rituals and sometimes has man’s motives and sometimes corruption in mind instead of God’s purpose – and unfortunately, those things pushed me away from God for a very long time.

There’s possibly more to this 137 than what I can understand too. There’s not just the Divine aspect to it that I personally experienced but also fits the scientific world too, which will be expanded upon in other posts too.

As I may have mentioned in the main story, I will add various posts from time to time relating to my grandfather’s passing and Luke 1:37. One of my primary reasons for doing so is to help others who may be seeking answers. Additionally, after I have gone to be with Jesus, I want to ensure this story lives on for many years to come with the potential of continuing to help someone after I am gone.

My grandfather was a natural “green thumb” and seemingly could grow just about anything. I remember he had one very large apple tree in his front yard and another smaller apple tree. I remember the smaller apple tree being my favorite as they were tart green apples. They were extraordinarily hard and you couldn’t easily bite into them – you had to slice them. For me as a kid, slice up some apples and sometimes throw a little salt on them, yum! This was just a random thought and this event has nothing to do with apples.

You may be familiar with the poinsettia plants – the plants that are generally sold around Thanksgiving and Christmas with the pointed leaves and red flowers. It’s an indoor houseplant that typically lives a few months on average, but if your lucky, you could have one that will live a year or even two. In the right climates, you could get much longer out of them and they can grow very large – but we lived in Ohio, not the best climate for a plant that is indigenous to Central America. Well, at the time of my grandfather’s passing, he had one that was at least 15 years old, maybe even closer to 20 years. We attributed this plants age to my grandfather’s dedication and ability to grow almost anything. What we didn’t know at the time was the significance of this particular plant.

Over the years, his poinsettia plant had become more like a small indoor tree. It was in a very large pot and spread out 3-4 feet wide and equally as tall. The base of the plant looked more like tree bark rather than the normal green stems. It was basically a large tree like plant with green leaves. My grandfather lived in a mobile home and it was in a small room and took up a great deal of space. Needless to say, it was amazingly large and live well beyond its normal life cycle.

Unfortunately, it had been about 7 – 8 years since the last time the plant had bloomed. An extraordinary event happened with the plant the month before my grandfather’s passing. In October 1990, that poinsettia plant bloomed for the first time in several years. During the time of my grandfather’s quick decline in health due to the aggressive cancer, the plant also began to die. The few days leading up to his death, the plant became worse in health, the blooms and leaves fell off and shriveled up. We tried to keep the plant alive without success. On November 26, 1990 when my grandfather passed, I recall walking into the room of the plant and it was very much gone. We believe there was a special connection to the plant and my grandfather, when he passed, it had also passed but managed to provide him with one final bloom.

So, is there any biblical connection relating to poinsettia plants? Perhaps not a direct biblical connection but certainly a religious connection that is said to start in Mexico in the 17^th century. Here is the story of the poinsettia I found on a website.

“Legend has it that Pepita, a poor Mexican girl, had no gift to present the Christ Child at Christmas Eve Services in her village. As she slowly walked to the chapel with her cousin Pedro, her heart was filled with sadness. Pedro said to her, “I am sure that even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes,”

Unsure what to do, Pepita knelt by the side of the road, picked a handful of common weeds, and made them into a small bouquet. Looking at the scraggly bunch of weeds, she felt more saddened and embarrassed than ever by the humbleness of her offering. She fought back a tear as she entered the small village chapel.

As she approached the altar, she remembered Pedro’s words: “Even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes.” She felt her spirit lift as she knelt to lay the bouquet at the foot of the nativity scene. Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into blooms of brilliant red, and all who saw them were certain that they had witnessed a Christmas miracle right before their eyes.

From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, for they bloomed each year during the Christmas season. Thus, the legend of the poinsettia was born.”

Symbolically, the poinsettia plant represents the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and promise of eternal life in heaven. The green leaves represent the promise of eternal life. The star shaped leaf pattern of the plant also represent the Star of Bethlehem seen at the time of the birth of Jesus. The red flowers represent the blood of Jesus and His ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

I believe this was just another one of those messages from God that played out during the time of my grandfather’s passing. God works in ways that we are incapable of understanding, but I believe in due time, it will all be revealed to us. In the meantime, I believe those messages are out there to help strengthen our faith in this fallen world.