Wisdom Loves Life

Who pays the price for becoming wise? If Folly had its own banking system, humanity would write checks on the overdrawn account of human wisdom.

Scripture tells us that wisdom is a high commodity in the open market of life, and often it comes at the expense of bills that our own folly racks up; we learn the cost of both by experience. Sometimes the education comes by ignorance, e.g., “I didn’t know the stove was hot, but my blistering finger tells me it was so!” At other times, our curiosity drives our willingness to pay the price: “This stove has burned me be-fore, so I know I can withstand the searing pain.”

Happiness and peace are the lifelong possession of the one who garners wisdom.

Proverbs 3 reminds us that to grasp wisdom is to take hold of one of the most valuable, even powerful, weapons in life. And of course, it is—for to grasp wisdom is to invite the mind of Christ Himself, the One who ordered the world and keeps it hanging together. To grasp Christ’s mind for His creation is much more than understanding what is right and wrong; it is a return to the peace, knowledge, and shalom of the One who created the whole system of life. He has paid the tuition on our behalf and left us the record of His world in natural and special revelation. He has left His Spirit to guide us into all knowledge and wisdom to the place that our spiritual parents forsook:

Happy is a man who finds wisdom and who acquires understanding, for she is more profitable than silver, and her revenue is better than gold. She is more precious than jewels; nothing you desire can equal her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant, and all her paths, peaceful. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who hold on to her are happy. (Prov. 3:13–18)

Wisdom beckons us with a full scholarship to her academy, bought and paid for by the Creator and the return to wisdom made possible through the blood-bought redemption of Christ. Christ, in the wisdom of the kind Creator, has given us His wisdom in the form of written Word, explaining the ordered workings of His universe.

Happiness and peace are the lifelong possession of the one who garners wisdom. Does this mean that unfortunate things, even destructive things, will never happen to the wise? Certainly not. No comfort-able life is promised to the Christian, but rather trouble is promised; yet we are instructed to take heart in the midst of trouble because Wisdom Himself has overcome the world. He will hold the Christian together in peace, even when the world is falling apart.