Wisdom

 

Who is the wisest person you know? When I was in grade school, I thought our teachers were some of the wisest people I knew. They taught us how to read words and musical notes, how to understand math and maps. We even had one teacher who taught chemistry and another who taught us how to golf.

As I got older, I thought that our college professors were some of the wisest people. They had doctor’s degrees and read books in foreign languages. Some of them even wrote books. To me they all seemed wise.

When I got older, I realized that there are not many wise people in the world. I say that because in our Psalm today (146), we read “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.” There are a lot of people who talk a lot and write a lot of words, but there is no salvation in them, only in the Lord our God.

The Psalmist told people that the Lord God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, [and] keeps faith forever. A person who gets elected to office, has a job on TV, or knows a lot about a few subjects, is not necessarily wise. But if someone understands that God is infinitely wiser and rules forever, and knows that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; [and] fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7), then you might want to listen to that person. My point: Always listen to God’s teaching above all others’ teachings. You’ll never go wrong if you listen to God.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.