Wisdom Tells Her Age

            It is taboo in many cultures to ask how old someone is, at least among adults.  Asking the age of kids does not seem to pose a problem and they are proud to tell you how many years they have under their belts.  This age taboo question is also prevalent in Guatemala.  Someone was wondering the age of a particular lady and the translator said, “You ask her that!”  The older we become the less proud many people are of their age.  Wisdom is quite the contrary.  Wisdom gloats about how long she has been around.  This kind of pride puts the worth of experience into perspective.

            “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man” (Proverbs 8:22–31, ESV).  If wisdom is so willing and even proud to share her age then why do we get so bashful about our age?  It is time we change our mindset of the older age and learn to sit at their feet to learn from their life experiences and soak in the wisdom they have to offer.

            “And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death” (Prov. 8:32–36).  Let us constantly seek out wisdom and never disregard it simply because it has a lot of miles under its hood.