God's Delight

“Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.” (Pr 8:31 AV)

 

This chapter is rather strange to be simply because the chapter is a personification of an attribute of God.  That attribute, wisdom, speaks as a female person.  I understand the literary style here.  Wisdom, being a female, is comparing herself (itself) against the strange woman. She is pleading with men (mankind) to welcome her rather than suffer the consequences of ignoring her.  Especially as men choose the strange woman over her.  But what struck me in the verse above is the underlined phrase.  The wisdom of God delights to be with the sons of men.  In other words, God delights to share His wisdom with the very beings He has created.  He desires to share as much information, understanding, and wisdom as we can assimilate.  He is always there, trying to instruct us in the perfections of the divine that we might have the blessings which His wisdom can bring.

Being a parent and grandparent, I understand this!  There is no greater pleasure than experiencing some mentor time with my son or grandchild.  Especially those grandkids.  There were times they want to sit on Pawpa’a lap and listen to what he has to say.  For the most part, they want to run around and be entertained.  But there are those rare times when Pawpa’s lap is the only place they want to be.  All five and a half grandchildren are pretty young right now, so the depth of our conversations are not all that intimate.  But I look forward to the time when my grandchild wants to sit and chat about what it was like when I was a kid.  My first three grandchildren had this little memory with me.  It started out with a coffee table book on dogs.  These books are tremendously oversized and have more pictures than words.  My eldest grandchild loved looking at that book.  Her interest spilled over to her brother.  We would spend hours with these two on my lap, paging through the pictures of dogs.  My second eldest grandchild was into trains.  So, I went to a book store and found a coffee table book on trains.  It took a little bit of coaxing, but we spent a bit looking at that book as he sat on my lap.  It is memories like these that I will treasure.  Always.  There is coming a day when my grandchild and I will go fishing, go for an ice cream cone, or go hunting and I will have the delight of simply talking to him or her.  But even more of a delight would be to teach him or her something they will need for the rest of their life.  My Grandpa Bowles was that way.  I still remember his smoking chair where several words of wisdom were uttered.  I remember the night my brother and I spent at a sleepover and the important lesson on snooping I learned the next day.

It takes a bit of humility to sit quiet and let someone older and wiser share the wisdom that we desperately need.  We want to think we will figure it all out on our own.  Like a grandchild who grows out of Pawpa’s lap, we strike out on our own.  Yet, there is the Ancient of days waiting for the opportunity to share infinite wisdom with any and all who will take the time and humble themselves for the opportunity to learn from a God who knows all things.  I know how I felt when my grandchild outgrew me.  It hurt.  I know they will eventually look for an opportunity to spend with Pawpa again.  In the meantime, there is sadness.  One wonders if we do the same to the LORD when He desires to share infinite wisdom with us and we have outgrown Him.  Simply because we read the word of God doesn’t mean we are sharing an intimate moment with the Divine any more than if our grandchild asks us a question because he is doing a history project concerning something we experienced.  There is a difference between information gathering and sharing an intimate moment of wisdom sharing.  When the Spirit illumined that verse above, my mind went to the times my grandchild sat on my lap and the delight I received from it.  I wondered if I was robbing God of a similar experience because I have outgrown Him, don’t have the time or interest, or think there isn’t much more I can learn.