I have been a lover of the book of Proverbs since my early days as a believer. Pastor Bob Yandian taught a series to our church, opening my eyes to the many confusing mysteries contained in the book. He challenged us all to read a chapter of Proverbs per day for the rest of our lives; a practice that I have maintained for the last 40 years. I have read from many translations, currently I am reading from the Passion Translation. All of the quotes made in this book will be from this translation, unless noted.
Proverbs 21:20 leapt from the page "In Wisdom's house you'll find delightful treasures, and oil of the Holy Spirit."
'I want to go to wisdom's house,' I thought, suddenly realizing that it might be a real place.
Over the next few weeks, I was alerted by Holy Spirit to other verses, such as, Proverbs 8:14 "If you wait at wisdom's doorway, longing to hear a word for everyday, joy will break forth within you as you listen for what I'll say. "Wisdom's doorway? Could this be a real place?" I asked.
Proverbs 9:1 "Wisdom has built herself a palace"
"Father," i prayed, "If this is a real place, I want to go for a visit. I want to sit at wisdom's doorway and make her my friend." A few days later, as I was quietly waiting before the Lord, I had a vision of a woman dressed like a Greek goddess, in a white sleeveless dress with a gold braid crossing her chest. I looked at her and said, "Yes?"
"You want to meet wisdom?" she asked, I nodded and she said, "Follow me."
We stepped onto a cobble stone bridge that went upward. The bridge had sides also made of stone. About half way, I stopped to look over the side. The view reminded me of flying over a storm in an airplane. There was rolling dark clouds and lightening flashing fiercely. I looked back at my guide and she said, "Wisdom always lives above the storm."
We arrived at a wide porch with seven living pillars and a bench that was also alive. I could feel their excitement at my arrival. As I sat down, the bench seemed to cuddle to me, much like the way a puppy will snuggle up to you when you sit down. Wisdom came around the corner; she was wispy, moving all of the time, with the most amazing eyes that I have ever seen. Eyes full of compassion and love; they shone with understanding and joy--so much Joy. I could feel her love for me IMMEDIATELY and her joy that I had come for a visit. "What do you want?" she gently asked, her eyes glowing with love and anticipation. There are moments, too many to count, that I have felt dumb in her presence. I tried to search my mind to an answer, the verse "I wisdom, dwell with prudence and give knowledge of witty inventions."
"How about an invention?" I blurted out.
Suddenly we were walking through a "swamp of waist high mini marshmallows!
She was moving quickly and I was working really hard to keep up. Finally. I yelled, "what are we doing?" She stopped and turned back to look at me with love and said, "Inventions are hard work. The answer to Red Algae is mint."
The vision ended.
As I thought about the words, "inventions are hard work," I realized that I had a belief, that if God gave me an invention, I would draw it up, submit it to somewhere (no idea where) and BAM!, I would be rich and humanity would be blessed, I didn't realize that I would have to work to make any invention become reality.
"What in the world is red Algae? Does it even exist, or was that whole vision just my imagination?" I muttered as I googled it on my phone. I have lived in Michigan, far away from the ocean, where it seems that Red Algae or Red Bloom is destroying their beaches! As of the time of this writing, I still do not know what I am supposed to do the answer, and I have not worked hard AT ALL of my invention.
I have, however, developed a wonderful relationship with wisdom.