August 5 A Sign of A Child of God

The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward to question him. ~Proverbs 18:17 

Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One of them said, “My Lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was there with me. The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone. There was no one in the house but the two of us. During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. So, she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I, your servant, was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. The next morning, I got up to nurse my son, and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.” 
     The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.” But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king. 
     The king said, “This one says, “My son is alive and your son is dead,” while that one says, “No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.” Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So, they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order: “cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.” 
     The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, “Please, my Lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!” But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two.” Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him. She is his mother.” ~1 Kings 3:16-27 

Boy, this takes me back to our “raising kids” days. “Dad, he hit me!” “Son, why did you hit your sister?” “She stole my…” and we were off on another episode of, “What is the Real Story Anyway?” It was sponsored by every headache medicine on the market! Ah, those were the days. May they never return. 

Sadly, I think that the wisdom of this proverb is being sorely neglected today. Too many forget that there usually are at least two sides to a story. We jump on the band wagon to support the first side we hear, especially if we like it. We so easily miss the fact that we may not know everything we need to know to make a just decision. Our news media seem to have chosen sides. Our politicians survive on the fact that there are different perspectives. The result is a lot of division and a lack of honest communication. We are losing the ability to remain civil. 

If only there were a test like Solomon’s for every situation that would always bring the truth to the surface as plainly as Solomon’s discernment about who was the rightful mother of the child. He was certainly using his God given wisdom well on that day. And everyone was amazed! But Solomon is not the only one to whom God has promised wisdom. It is available to all of us when we ask for it and are willing to wait patiently and listen when the wisdom is given. 

It requires us to be willing to lay aside our prejudices and preferences that can block our ability to listen, but it is available if we ask for it. Gossip often benefits from our failure to hear both sides of a story. Our, “friend,” comes to us with a version of how something happened, or an opinion of an incident and, well, we trust our friend, our friend wouldn’t lie, so it must be true! There is no need to go any further. 

So much damage is done in relationships because of our unwillingness to take the time to hear the other side of the story. We may pride ourselves on believing, that by not hearing the other side, we won’t be gossiping about our friend. But if we aren’t willing to hear both sides, we of all people should keep quiet, and accept the fact that we don’t know the truth. If on the other hand we are willing to hear both sides, we will be blessed with the opportunity to promote reconciliation which would help to answer Jesus’ prayer for building unity in John 17:20-26. 

In the beatitudes, Jesus says: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:9) Isn’t that what we are? When we participate in gossip either by telling or listening to only one side, we are not acting like God’s children. But when we are willing to hear both sides and seek understanding through our God given wisdom and then, are willing to be the bridge, for the sake of Christ, we are furthering the work that He did when His cross became the bridge between God and sinful man. What are our petty little differences compared with that? 

Could we even begin to bear to hear God’s side of that story? God could say, “These humans and I live on the same planet. I had a plan for developing a wonderful and glorious society and civilization for them here with me. Then a little while after I created Adam and Eve, they also had an idea. We were alone. There was no one else in the garden with us except a certain snake. During the night, the human couple’s idea died because they were disobeying me. But they clung to it anyway and suffered for it. I sent my Son to help them but they refused to listen to him and they killed him! But he rose again, and some believed. Later, even among the ones who believed in him, some changed the story about him and tried to make him back into their own idea again! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the Son I had borne.” 

Ask for God’s wisdom and we will see. God has compassion on his errant children and does not want us to die for our sins, Yes, even though we were His enemies, and didn’t care, He reached out to us, heard our story, heard our pain, knew how we were suffering without Him and became the reconciliation for us all.

Prayer: Father, thank You for sharing Your Wisdom. I pray that I will sit and listen for it every time I need to, in every situation. And Jesus, thank You for overcoming my foolishness with Your loving sacrifice. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

Song: The Perfect Wisdom