Wisdom Defines the World
So, how does the world around us guide our spiritual growth?
Right discernment of life begins with an obedient discernment of Yahweh the Creator.
Walter Brueggemann, An Introduction to the Old Testament
The material world is meant to play a part in our spiritual growth.
A big clue that this is true is to notice Jesus’ use of birds, water, wine, storms, and trees to explain the kingdom work God was doing in and through him. Jesus was, of course, focused like a laser on our hearts and souls. But that interior place, where we meet God, happens within the material world; a world that provides help in explaining what is going on in one’s interior world.
This is true because the world is created by and sustained by God’s Wisdom. Even if we can all name fools and point out foolish behavior, that does not minimize the fact that the world is saturated with God’s Wisdom.
God’s Wisdom is the feature. Fools are the bug.
And—connecting to that Wisdom, welcoming it into our lives, and setting aside the foolishness of the world is central to Christian spirituality.
It works something like this: Call to mind a hummingbird. Observe the brightly metallic purple, green, and blue colors that paint its body and scarf its head. Holding this observation, begin to ponder it, muse over it, and add some curious wonder: How does a little hummingbird have such iridescent colors?
Such musing moves us to wonderment: The tiny bird is a wonder! It’s awesome! When we sit with such moments, respect for creation increases, admiration for the Creator rises, along with reverence, which leads to increased devotion to God.
That process from observation to devotion is what the wisdom writer hoped for in the personification of Wisdom:
Does not Wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
I was there when [God] set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
(Proverbs 8:1, 27-29)
An expected outcome of noticing God’s wisdom is that we would be drawn to him through it:
Now then, my children, listen to me;
blessed are those who keep my ways.
Listen to my instruction and be wise;
do not disregard it.
Blessed are those who listen to me,
watching daily at my doors,
waiting at my doorway.
For those who find me find life
and receive favor from the Lord.
(Proverbs 8:32–35)
Blessed are those who strive to align their lives to God’s Wisdom. Righteousness, love, peace, hope and joy flow to and from such a life. This is the moral coherence that vibrates through all the created order.
A great constant source of personal and societal grief is the corollary that those who fail to find wisdom harm themselves; all who hate wisdom love death (Proverbs 8:36).
Embedding our lives in God’s Wisdom guides and assists us as we strive to bring our daily choices of conduct into the power of God’s Wisdom, thus bringing life and peace and flourishing to his world.
The world runs on Wisdom, not on politics, economies, sex, social media, technology, or entertainment. Our lives are meant to find meaning, purpose, and direction from that Wisdom. Wisdom was the active agent at work in creation and is the operating dynamic of God’s ongoing providence.
If we were to think deeply about the Person of Wisdom who created and sustains the world, we will deepen our devotion to God, make closer our followership of Jesus, increase our care for creation, and facilitate love of the pinnacles of God’s creation: our neighbor and our enemy.
Strive to be wise. Look around you today and delight in God’s creation as a first step.