What do shutters and wisdom have to do with each other? Well, I’m about to tell you because I’ve been thinking about both.
When we moved into our home last summer, I pledged that I wouldn’t change any landscape for a full year in order to observe it in all seasons. Well, rule-breaker that I am, I decided that the twenty-year-old shrubs in the front of the house simply HAD to go. I just don’t want super tall shrubs that I can’t keep pruned and tidy by myself. Since winter is the best time to get them out and make way for replanting, I scheduled them to be yanked only six months into our possession.
In the meantime, I began the dreaming process -- some beautiful shutters for those windows that would become more visible once the shrubs were removed. I’ve always loved house shutters. We installed them on our last home and Paul says they are the eye-liner of the home. On my walks around the neighborhood I noted all the different styles and colors and finally narrowed my selection.
We DO have one window on our west side that has faded shutters, and that needs to be remedied. “How odd,” I told my husband. “That they would go to the work of putting shutters on only one window of the house. I’ve never heard of that!”
Well, on New Year's Day, before the landscaper's appointment later that week, we were sitting in our almost-warmed-up pickup in front of the house, ready to head out on a little excursion and I was explaining how nice it would look with less tangled shrubbery and more shutters. In the midst of my explanation, I suddenly said, “Look! There actually IS a shutter on that one side of the window! Hey, on both sides! I never noticed them before.” I told Paul to drive forward really slowly because maybe there were shutters on the other side as well!
Laughter and embarrassment ensued! We had all the shutters we needed, we just never noticed them. AND, we just saved a bunch of money since we merely need a can of paint!
There were those coveted shutters concealed in plain sight all along. At the same time I was dreaming about shutters, I was writing study notes for my upcoming Bible Study on Proverbs and making the point from chapter 9 that wisdom isn’t difficult to find. God’s wisdom is readily-available for even the simplest of people to find and apply to their lives.
Proverbs 9:1-6 says, [[READING:Proverbs 9:1-6]]“Wisdom has built her house… She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, ‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’... ‘Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.’”[[/READING]]
God’s wisdom is often right in front of us but sometimes it gets concealed by shrubbery (aka, the noise of other things). Sometimes hearty pruning, or even complete removal of obstacles is required for us to really see the wisdom of God in action. But the point is, it’s not hard to find, it just requires a person to stop and really look for a change. In fact, God himself is not hard to find. He created our hearts to yearn toward Him. (Acts 17:27)
If you feel distant from God or confused about the way you should go, maybe you just need to remove some of the noise in your life, admit that you’re so simple you sometimes can’t even see what’s right in front of your eyes, and ask God to show you the way of wisdom.