WISER THAN AN OWL

To be deft as a dog, wily as a cat, clever as a crow, odd as an otter, amazing as a hummingbird, as mystifying as a returning salmon… is just nature being natural and normal by instinctual wisdom. Deer, horse and cow babies are up and walking within an hour after birth. Much of the wild is ‘do or die’ and by keenly evolved senses the species live on the way they were intended. Robins have their reasons for building mud-lined nests.

Humans have to learn how to live, how to eat and survive. We do not have innate wisdom… we are not born with it. We have to learn it…everything. We can become wise concerning many things of science, medicine, cake making, transmission repair, picture framing, building high buildings or high flying airplanes. This all has to be taught and learned.

Paul, an apostle, reminded us “that the world through its wisdom did not know God.” (1 Corinthians 1:21) We can know a lot of stuff and not know God. I’ve noticed that there are a good number of folks around like that. Smart, but Fatherless. Earlier in the letter, Paul wrote: “By Him you are enriched in everything, in all speech and in all knowledge” (1:5).

This chapter on comparative wisdom ends this way: “Because of God you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. In Christ we are put right with God, and have been made holy, and have been set free from sin.” (1:30) Knowing Jesus is becoming wise. The raccoon and the rooster were born that way.

“If you really knew me, you would know my Father, too. But now you do know him, and you have seen him.” Jesus