Preparing for wisdom
by Marlene Cooper
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‘Then I was constantly at his side … rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind’ (Proverbs 8:30,31).
Is everything ready? The house, the gifts, the food – and, what else? The heart?
While we have been busy with our preparations, the Holy Spirit has been secretly at work in our hearts, preparing us for God’s work of wisdom. With the birth of Jesus, divine wisdom, which was there at the dawn of creation, has entered history in a new and wonderful way. Proverbs pictures wisdom as a co-worker with God in creation, a gracious and generous host, a mediator of divine favour. With the advent of Christ, wisdom is again at work, seeking hearts ready to receive and welcome this divine Guest. Wisdom seeks us out through the word and prepares us for worship.
Wisdom knows the truth about Jesus. The child we are preparing to welcome and worship again this Christmas is the true Word of God who, in wisdom, spoke the world and its creatures, its beauty and its goodness, into being. Now he comes to bring God’s saving wisdom into all creation, to a world dislocated by sin. St Paul writes to believers in Corinth: ‘You are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption’ (1 Corinthians 1:30).
A newborn baby bedded down in a manger doesn’t readily disclose this wonder! But wisdom knows and declares: here lies the creator of the universe. I was with him in the beginning, and I am with him now. He is creation’s redeemer, God’s wise way of making sinners righteous and holy. To worship him at this holy time is wisdom’s highest work. That’s why, as we prepare everything else to celebrate the Saviour’s birth, it is good to have hearts prepared for not just a birthday party but also for the one who makes worship possible for us. Worship is wisdom’s divine work in our hearts.
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy child, make thee a bed, soft, undefiled, within my heart, that it may be a quiet chamber, kept for thee. Amen.
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