Tuesday, April 28

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Proverbs 24:3-4

By wisdom a house is built,
    and through understanding it is established;

through knowledge its rooms are filled
    with rare and beautiful treasures.

When my wife and I had the opportunity to have a home built we invested a great deal of time and forethought in designing every detail of the house. We wrestled with the dimensions of each room, the size and type of windows, the color and style of every fixture, and even the slope of the driveway. At one point when the house was still being framed we didn’t like the shape and placement of one of the bedroom closets, so we had it ripped out and changed.

Simply put, we invested a great deal of time, energy and money in shaping a house out of wood, bricks and dry-wall. The question, of course, is: do we invest the same kind of attention and energy in shaping the relationships that fill the rooms of that house?

Read again the ancient wisdom of the Proverbs:

By wisdom a house is built,
    and through understanding it is established;

through knowledge its rooms are filled
    with rare and beautiful treasures.

Not long ago I saw a story about ex-NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal that included photos of his 70,000 square foot home in Florida. The house had something like 11 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms and a garage big enough for 30 cars. The article went on to say, however, that Mr. O’Neal’s wife had moved out with their four children due to marital problems and that Shaq now lives in the mansion by himself.

Now I don’t know Shaquille O’Neal personally, and I want to be careful here, but there’s something very sad about a man living alone in a 70,000 square foot house.

I think the “rare and beautiful treasures” mentioned by the ancient writer refer to the people and relationships that fill a home rather than the furnishings and fixtures of a house. In saying that it takes wisdom, understanding and knowledge to build a home the Bible is not talking about architecture or interior design, but about relationships.

The most precious and valuable treasures in our lives are the people God places in our lives; in particular, the people who live in our homes, our families.

Think of it this way: if you owned a piece of antique furniture that was worth $1 million, how would you take care of it? My guess is you would check on it every day, perhaps several times a day. You would make sure it was safe; you would take measures to protect it from harm; you would polish it often; and sometimes you would just look at it in appreciation of it’s beauty.

Now think of the people who share your home.

Have you taken good care of your treasures today?

Pastor Brian Coffey