For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright,
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity.

 Proverbs 2:6-7

The process of wisdom, God’s wisdom, is simply remarkable! And it is a process; not just a one and done. Think about it. Even babies gain wisdom. They put two and two together and wisely decide that sucking their thumbs brings comfort and satisfaction while swaying in mommy’s womb. At the moment of emerging from mommy’s womb, they cry. A very wise decision instantaneously made so they can breathe. From that moment on a human’s life should be filled with gathering knowledge and understanding and making wise choices. 

Waddling baby’s little hand reaches for the hot stove and, this time, Daddy pulls their hand away and says, “No, that is hot. You will be hurt. Do not touch.” Baby has now gathered knowledge, but no real understanding of what is a hot stove. Baby doesn’t really even know exactly how hot and hurt go together and he sees no real harm in it. So, he reaches up again. This time Daddy repeats his warning but more sternly and even picks up baby and moves him away from the stove. This is getting serious and a glimmer of understanding is hopefully emerging. His loving father is warning to stay away from the hot white thing where the yummy food comes from. But, there is always so much activity around this stove thing and it seems so fun. Baby just wants to join in.

A vague remembrance of Mommy saying almost those same exact words comes into baby’s mind. She also physically removed him from the hot area. Hot must be bad for him. But, it always smells so good and he just wants a little touch and just for a few seconds. Maybe he can sneak over when his parents aren’t looking and…Ouch! Baby touches the hot stove; just a little touch and just for a few seconds, but we all know the end result. 

A basic human conflict is being waged, even in such a young mind and heart. And that conflict will continue throughout his or her life! It’s a rudimentary conflict that results in everything from a baby’s boo-boo to world wars! Will knowledge and understanding propagate to wise decisions or will we ignore all the instructions and teachings and warnings and touch the hot stove! For many of us, we really don’t believe God. We don’t believe His basic set up of the universe; things like what goes up must come down and staring at the sun will damage our eyes and eating too much ice cream leads to tummy aches. You know all that science stuff we choose to ignore or test without proper consideration and precautions. 

We don’t believe His basic set up for interaction with other human beings; things like inflammatory words triggers anger and bully tactics will come back to haunt us or conversely, kindness heals a multitude of wounds. We just keep plodding along life being “Me” and “It’s just the way I am” while we inflict harm on so many who come in and out of our lives. And we certainly do not believe God’s basic set up for having a relationship with Him and living with Him for all eternity. And some of us so strongly do not believe God’s wisdom of the Gospel of Salvation, that we reject there is any God at all, at least not one we have to be concerned about. 

But, when we do believe God’s wisdom is the only wisdom worth having, then we reap the amazing rewards of clinging to the process of obtaining and remaining in God’s wisdom! More on that tomorrow.