Walking With Wisdom

April 18, 2021

Blessed are those who find wisdom,
    those who gain understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver
    and yields better returns than gold.
Proverbs 3:13-14

Good Friday is the anniversary of the first time I got baptized. I was about 5. My older sister was getting baptized at the evening service, and I wanted to be baptized too. At first my mother said no because I was too young to understand it. I told her I believed in Jesus, and I did understand.

“Getting baptized means you join the church, and you belong to God,” I said.

My mother consented. I really did believe in Jesus. But if she had pressed me on that church part, she would have found that I thought the Church was on Gates Avenue, and so God had something else for folk Down South or in China etc., because God knew they just lived too far away to come to church every Sunday!

God does not change, but our understanding changes. And it should. We, like Jesus during his earthly traverse, are supposed to “[grow] in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

This week’s Pentecost readings focus on wisdom and its promised blessings.  In Proverbs, wisdom is personified as a woman crying out in the streets for the foolish to avoid calamity by following her to peace, contentment, wealth, and prosperity.

In the New Testament, Jesus picked up on this wisdom genre, teaching in parables and with a grace and truth that zeroed in on what mattered most: justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23).

Following wisdom, we learn that:

• God really is love and delights when we act like we know that.
• Gaining knowledge is proof there’s a lot we don’t know yet, and so humility is in order.
• Mistakes happen, so err on the side of love and mercy because we’re going to need both at some point.
• God is not bound by our understanding of Go d..

At 16, I decided I really hadn’t understood what I was doing when I got baptized at 5, so I did it again. At 62, I understand that God had indeed received my child faith, taken my hand, and is still walking me through life as I grow.

Prayer:   Lord God, thank you for faithfulness and love. Just because you promised, you give us the Holy Spirit to guide us into truth and help us navigate the days of our lives with wisdom.

This Week’s Music
Listen:   ”I Am God” by Donald Lawrence & Tri City Singers
Listen:   ”Speak to My Heart Holy Spirit” by Donnie McClurkin
Listen:   Order My Steps-#333, African American Hymnal

This Week’s Art:   “Wisdom” by Ayibiowu Olusola David.  Painting from a 2008 solo exhibition in City Hall, Onikan, Lagos, Nigeria.

About the Author

Deacon Yvette Moore is Director of PR and Marketing for the national United Methodist Women. Her novel Freedom Songs is a YA Civil Rights classic published by Penguin Publishing’s Puffin Books. She recently re-issued Freedom Songs through her company, Jubilee Year Communications, along with its new arson-mystery sequel, Just Sketching.

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