Power

February 18, 2020 (Tuesday)

Today has been designated “National Battery Day.” It is always celebrated on February 18. Batteries are used for so many things that it would be almost impossible to include a catalog of uses in this brief blog. They come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and power capacity, to fit a wide array of needs.

Without batteries we’d still be using a crank to start our automobiles, although I suspect that would not work on the high powered engines of today. My father owned a 1937 Chevrolet sedan, and it had a crank, just in case the battery went dead. Early automobiles had a different kind of system that supplied power to the headlights, but a crank was still needed to start the engine. Soon, however, cars had a battery and a crank was no longer needed.

Most likely, this day was created by a national association or a battery manufacturer, although suggestions have been made that this day is in honor of Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and inventor of electric battery, who was born on this day in 1745.

The batteries we ordinary people use supply portable power. Every house is supplied with power from a power company, which generates electricity and sends it out on power lines to everyone who needs it.

Today is a good time to appreciate the real power of batteries in our everyday life.

I cannot think of power without thinking of what the Bible says about it. Here’s what it says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16 NIV). We cannot do without this power!