Did you ever wonder what it means when they say it’s 25 degrees, but the “real feel” temperature is 14 degrees?
Does the weatherman simply walk outside knowing it’s 25 degrees and say, “Well, it feels like 14 degrees to me!” That’s what I thought until I found the science behind the “wind chill.”
The following formula is valid for temperatures of 30 to 500 degrees.
(Wind Chill Temperature) WCT = 35.74 + 0.6215×T (temperature) 35.75×V (wind speed) 0.16 + 0.4275×T×V0.16 is the formula used by the National Weather Service to calculate the WCT in Fahrenheit.
It seems moving air blows away the thin layer of warm air covering your skin, the temperature of the air doesn’t change, but your perception of that temperature does. Just step behind a wall out of the wind and you’ll know all you need to know.
All this talk of “wind chill” came up during a study of Jesus’ birth.
Maybe you remember this in Matthew:
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and give birth to a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which, when translated, means “God with us”). Then Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and he took Mary (to his home) as his wife, but he kept her a virgin until she had given birth to a Son (her firstborn child), and he named Him Jesus” (the Lord is salvation).
— Matthew 1: 23-25
The Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans all believed in many gods, however, among all those gods, there isn’t a single “god of hope” and that might be the god we most need.
Then one chilly night early in the first century, hope was born in a manger in Bethlehem, and there is a hidden message in verse 23. Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah saying the baby will be called Immanuel meaning “God with us!” But the angel clearly tells Mary and Joseph to name him Jesus, and we might wonder why there are two names. But Immanuel is not a name, it’s a descriptive term. The baby named Jesus, meaning “God saves,” is described as Immanuel, meaning “God with us!”
Suddenly, God is no longer a matter of perception, but a matter of presence. Immanuel came to live among us, and Jesus came to sacrifice his life for our sins.
And maybe we should do what he did by giving people a reason to hope.
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga. With wife, Mary Ella, they are missionaries to the Navajo Reservation.
