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More Riches

             By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. (Proverbs 24:3-4)

Wait. Yesterday’s message was “riches bad.” Now, today, it’s that riches are connected to knowledge and wisdom? Yes. Yesterday, we were warned not to make the pursuit of riches our motivation and as a sign of success. Today’s passage refers to valuable things with which we fill our homes.

One of the riches that comes to mind for me is crafting supplies. It’s not that I want to have a house decorated with crafts that I treasure. It’s that I want to be able to solve problems that arise, have ready access to something productive and creative to do, and be able to give to others. I have friends who put pictures of family members on their walls, or pictures children or grandchildren have colored. Mind you, the frame may not be gilt. There may not be a frame, but those are treasures, and those who do so build their home wisely.

The goal of today’s riches is not the riches themselves. I don’t collect craft supplies to have the most craft supplies or be a yarn-ionaire. I don’t purchase lumber in order to guide visitors into my office to point at the walls and say, “See all the lovely wood I’ve collected?”  I’d be crazy if I did, because I don’t tend to buy “pretty” or perfect wood. People don’t display their grandkids’ art because the picture itself is priceless but because the grandchildren are.

If we return to the idea that wisdom is dealing with reality in a positive, healthy way (with God, the universe, and the other things we find in the universe), then yesterday’s riches and today’s are easily distinguished. The riches that disappear are what connect us to things in a way we cannot escape. The riches with which the wise person builds a house connect them to other people.

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