A year and a half ago, I was given an alumni award by Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. To celebrate that occasion, my daughter-in-law, Christina, gave me a small Willow Tree figurine called Wisdom. The small six inch figurine is a woman dressed in a long white dress; head tilted in full concentration toward an open book on her lap. I love this figurine; she keeps me company in my office and calls me back to myself as I work. She reminds me of a painting I found of the prophetess Anna similarly concentrating on the Scriptures as she stayed in the temple night and day (Lk 2).
The association of reading with wisdom speaks to me. Reading has always been a refuge for me, a place in which I rest, a place I feel most at home in the world. I imagine this is why I followed the path I did in life, a life devoted to study, a life ordered toward great spaces of time for reading. I come to know myself best through reading.
My reading world is populated with diverse conversations. I listen in on the conversations of the writers of Scripture and those who carefully study them. I hear discussions of theologians and spiritual writers who read, study, and then write about the intersection of their study with their lives. Novels feed my imagination and help me to connect with other people’s interior lives. Reading challenges my understanding of God, and it also helps me to experience emotionally the trials, tribulations, joys, and griefs of other people who live very different lives from my own.
Reading has taught me compassion. Reading has taught me how much I do not know and how limited my views of life are. Reading awakens me to how rich and full God’s creation is; to the diversity and complexity of people, animals, and cultures, to the richness of imagination, to the beauty and tragedy that fill our world. Reading connects my interior world with the exterior world; the exterior world I am familiar with, as well as a world that lies beyond my own experience. Reading, all kinds of reading, is a deep form of prayer.
I am grateful for Lady Wisdom sitting upon my desk. She inspires me to keep going even when I feel a bit alone. She reminds me that my lifelong journey of reading is rich and meaningful.
Not everyone is called to find Wisdom through reading. Some find Wisdom through caring for others, through gardening, baking, fishing, walking, or biking. Throughout the Wisdom literature of the Bible, Wisdom is personified as a woman. The book of Proverbs tells us that she is calling to us in familiar and populated places. She calls out to us at well travelled crossroads, or in the midst of the city. She speaks to us through nature. In busy places, in quiet spaces, she is continually inviting us to come aside and listen. She is more precious than anything else on earth and is from of old. She played beside God when the world was created and is the bridge between humans and God. Amazingly, Wisdom delights in human beings (Proverbs 8). She invites us through our deepest desires, through our hunger and thirst. You find her with your heart.
Where does Wisdom speak to you? Is there a place, space, or activity that speaks to you of both God and others? What connects your interior life to your exterior life? Where are you challenged? Where are you taught? Where are you comforted? These places are the spaces of grace where Wisdom meets our hearts and leads us to God.
