Still Sunday?

I so wrote this yesterday, but Blogger was temporarily unavailable between like 10 and midnight haha. I swear.

Proverbs 8: The Discourse of Wisdom

My favorite parts:

"I, Wisdom, dwell with experience,
and judicious knowledge I attain.
...Mine are counsel and advice,
Mine is strength, I am understanding,
By me kings reign,
and lawmakers establish justice."

"On the way of duty I walk,
Along the paths of justice."

"The Lord begot me, the firstborn of
His ways,
The forerunner of his prodigies
Of long ago."

"For he who finds me finds life,
and wins favor from the Lord,
But he who misses me harms himself,
All who hate me love death."

The first section makes it clear that our sense of justice comes from God. Just like everything else, I should feel gratitude for that gift. It's a lot easier for me to see the need to thank God for people coming into my life, or the weather.. in a word - circumstance. It is harder to remember that my sense of appreciation, my understanding of what deserves my gratitude, that sense also comes from God.

Then, the author points out that Wisdom, capital W, exists outside of our existence, saying, "When He established the heavens I was there." So Wisdom isn't something that comes out of our heads. It is a definite "something", the "firstborn of God's ways", which we were created to be able to tap into.

That is a huge relief and a comfort to me for some reason, to think about. The idea that love and justice and wisdom - all those Godly notions - are out there, whether we acknowledge them or not. And when we act within their framework, that is when everything clicks into place and we feel God all the more because we have fit ourselves into his plan, given into his nudges.

"He who misses me harms himself, All who hate me love death."

Sometimes, it is tempting for me, and I give in a lot, to avoid thinking about certain things. Instead of going after wisdom, I go after blissful ignorance, but in doing that I am running away from the life that God hopes that I would choose to live.

I'm doin pretty good over here. The weather has been nice. Festival of the Arts just ended, which was cool. I baked banana bread yesterday. mmm.

I miss all of you!

<3 Martha