Tidbits

I love learning new facts and lessons. Today this happened with one of my favorite verses -- after all this time, imagine gaining new wisdom and insight from something with which you have been so familiar. Or so you thought :). This is great.

"Trust in the Lord with all your hear and do not lean on your own understanding."
Proverbs 3:5
All this time I have read a version that advises readers to 'lean not' on their own understanding. Here the warning sounds like a suggestion. In the case of the more accurate translation, though, the adviso is less a suggestion and more a demand. Do not. "Do not depend on your own understanding. In any circumstance. Do not. Just don't do it." I never saw it like that before.
As my roommate Amanda (holla!)* and I discussed this she brought up the sense of hesitation this might cause for us who have only ever really depended on ourselves and have felt pretty confident about our own understanding. Are we really to drop all of it, completely? Yes. It may be difficult, but the passage continues with good reasons for us to trust God with his wisdom and direction and [supreme]understanding.
"In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will bring healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones." (3:6-8)
Here 'flesh' is also understood as the Hebrew 'navel' or umbilical cord... (our first connection to and source of life?! :)) Also, 'refreshment' can mean 'medicine' and bones, 'marrow.' Medicine is healing, restorative (when it is good and effective) and any medicine prescribed and administered by God must be only the best. Marrow is responsible for manufacturing important blood cells. Blood, of course, physically, is understood as the source and sustenance of our mammalian life. When marrow 'goes bad,' there is no way for the body to make more; the marrow can only be replaced through transplantation. For this marrow -- a fundamental, vital, not-self-renewable necessity -- to be refreshed and restored, then, seems like a pretty big deal!

I don't know much about the body or the other medical or linguistic connections that might exist, but even this little bit is enough to blow me away. Imagine what else there could be, what other significance is there to be found! For this, I treasure your insight and your openness to share what God is teaching you and what His Spirit points out to you in this passage, in your life, in anything. Share with me, and together He can make our understanding even more complete!

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."
-Philippians 1:9-11

In his love,
Ashley.


* there is no toned-down, one-word, creamier version of this salutative recognition. Therefore, I use it without hesitation.