Where Wisdom Is Found

Panning for Gold...

The semester is drawing to an end and well, I'm starting to run out of things to do at school! This means both freedom and a lot of extra time that I don't know how to use. I'm doing my best to get some final details worked out on our fast-approaching trip to the US. We leave July 2nd! Just a week and a half away!

The thing I keep reminding myself though is that the trip I'm so looking forward to will be over before I know it. My goal is to enjoy the simple moments I have with friends and family giving thanks for the pleasure of their company because when you get right down to it, simple pleasures are all we've got.

I remember once or twice as a kid we went to the North Carolina mountains to old gold rush towns. In the streams there are still little flecks of gold waiting to be found. We'd take Dad's wide black-bottomed gold pan and sit on the banks taking turns washing and swishing and swirling handfuls of sand and dirt trying to catch a glints of gold that would easily flash out of sight. At the end of the day, we proudly bottled a few precious grains of golden sand. How proud we were of our little treasures which to the outside observer would seem so insignificant.

Maybe like the fine golden dust hidden in the silt bottom of a stream we have to diligently sift out and treasure the simple, beautiful moments in life. If we don't work at capturing them, they'll easily get overlooked and washed back into the muck .

I wrote a bit of poetry (if you can call it that) when I was first sitting down to write this post and feeling unsure of what I wanted to express. It all kind of tied together nicely with this notion of treasure and searching and knowing what is truly precious and worthwhile.

I wished to write something profound,

for nothing else seemed worth the effort,
But wisdom doesn't come cheap,
And I had nothing with which to produce it,
Just sitting in a pool of my own thoughts.

For what is the stuff of wisdom?
And who are the wise?
And where do they learn?
Who teaches them?

I want to be counted as wise too, but why?
To impress people?
To feel more secure?

With what motives can we begin to attain wisdom?

The cool thing is that after writing this and feeling still very perplexed I decided to search for the word wisdom in the Bible. Reading through many verses I came across this very enlightening passage from Job. I'm so funny being surprised by the fact that God would reveal this too me when I look for it...

Matthew 7:7-8
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Silly, Maggie can't you remember? God WANTS you to know more, to seek, to ask questions of Him that He may answer!

So here is the excerpt from Job. Check it out! I have been pondering about the nature of wisdom and the last line 28 sums it all up so well!

Job 28

Interlude: Where Wisdom Is Found

¹ There is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
² Iron is taken from the earth,
and copper is smelted from ore.
³ Mortals put an end to the darkness;
they search out the farthest recesses
for ore in the blackest darkness.
⁴ Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft,
in places untouched by human feet;
far from other people they dangle and sway.
⁵ The earth, from which food comes,
is transformed below as by fire;
⁶ lapis lazuli comes from its rocks,
and its dust contains nuggets of gold.
⁷ No bird of prey knows that hidden path,
no falcon’s eye has seen it.
⁸ Proud beasts do not set foot on it,
and no lion prowls there.
⁹ People assault the flinty rock with their hands
and lay bare the roots of the mountains.
¹⁰ They tunnel through the rock;
their eyes see all its treasures.
¹¹ They search the sources of the rivers
and bring hidden things to light.

¹² But where can wisdom be found?
Where does understanding dwell?
¹³ No mortal comprehends its worth;
it cannot be found in the land of the living.
¹⁴ The deep says, “It is not in me”;
the sea says, “It is not with me.”
¹⁵ It cannot be bought with the finest gold,
nor can its price be weighed out in silver.
¹⁶ It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir,
with precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
¹⁷ Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it,
nor can it be had for jewels of gold.
¹⁸ Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention;
the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.
¹⁹ The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it;
it cannot be bought with pure gold.

²⁰ Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
concealed even from the birds in the sky.
²² Destruction and Death say,
“Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”
²³ God understands the way to it
and he alone knows where it dwells,
²⁴ for he views the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
²⁵ When he established the force of the wind
and measured out the waters,
²⁶ when he made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunderstorm,
²⁷ then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
he confirmed it and tested it.
²⁸ And he said to the human race,
“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.”