Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more