In life we have beauty vs ugliness, often by our perception of what we choose to look at. You have heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and to some extent that is true. One person might find one person beautiful while others do not. One person might think animals and plants are cool to look at while another prefers the beach, ocean and stars. There is bias in majority liking one thing or another so as humanity we do tend to agree on something being beautiful or not by consensus.
Where this draws us to is the state in which we present something or someone to another. Imagine a crew of two astronauts. One loved humanity so much that he’d be willing to leave Earth to help science. The other one disdained people being jerks so much he just wanted to leave the place. They land on another planet, wise aliens greet them. The aliens ask them of Earth. The first astronaut says,”Earth, while in turmoil, generally gets things right. We have other life than us humans. We try and love each other and not hate. We have fun games and art.” The second astronaut,”You’re right it is in turmoil, everyone’s jerks. Sure we have animals, a lot of them, and some of them will harm you, pooping over everything, getting you infected with diseases like dog germs. I’m so glad I got away before the society collapsed and space travel was no longer possible.” The aliens will likely go,”You have conflicting views on this Earth. We must come and visit to find out for ourselves.”
There’s a bad guy saying from whom The Greatest Generation fought against that says,”Give me five sentences a person has written, and I’ll give you something to hang him in it.” And he’s right. If you want to slander or muck rake someone, it is easy. They could have written 10 novels on how to achieve world peace, and that only makes things easier for the muckraker… for there is more content to sort through to frame him looking bad. This happens time and time again online lately, but the focus of this article is not about muckrakers and hate bots for no one really does like to look at the ugly. I want to focus you on the beauty of wisdom.
In the Book of Job, we have a man who suffers because of the accusation of Satan. Satan is trying to make the case that since he rebelled against God because he didn’t get enough stuff (he got more than basically anyone who ever lived)… Satan is trying to say that since he rebelled because he didn’t get enough stuff, so would even God’s loyal followers if stuff is taken away from them. God couldn’t have said,”Well I gave you plenty of stuff.” because Satan could have said,”THEN GIVE ME MORE!” thus actually making a justifiable case against God… Fortunately God is perfect and didn’t acquiesce to his demands leading to the result of a man who always tried to be good suffering.
Satan rejoiced in hurting Job, but God didn’t want to see it happen. You see this time and time again today. We ask,”Why? Why does this person have to suffer for being an upstanding individual”, and we have to understand there are spiritual things going on such as that which man can reason that are more pressing than life or death. There are many things man cannot reason going on about God that are also more pressing than life or death. In these, we must still keep being good and loving.
We know a guy who tried to be good still suffered in the Book of Job. Some people shy away from this Book of Job because they find it uncomfortable to read. Those who do suffer can find solace in it though. Even better is that there is a gem of a passage buried deep within the recesses of Job’s struggle that people often miss because they’re afraid of digging into the tough parts of the Bible.
We know the Bible has tough parts to read through. Life has tough parts too, like going to school, but that can reward you with a better job and helping humanity more. We should not shy from something good because it has tough parts or that people say bad things about it. There are lots of places in the Bible with less value than others for us personally and getting through them is tough. Mosaic Law is tough to read through since it was one of the early governing systems. It is small value since many governing systems of today still use it. Still it is tough to get through and of small value. Yet… in many places, there is treasure more valuable than man has ever made, and this is wisdom! Please read the Bible, and you’ll discover the beauty and treasure within. The muckraker says,”Bible is all hard to read and garbage” How do you resolve something when two people say conflicting points? I would hope you’d find out for yourselves. Please Read The Bible. Scripture has been saying that Love is the way for over 3500 years. God’s been saying,’Love is the way’ for longer than that.
Proverbs 8:1 Listen! Wisdom is calling out. Reason is making herself heard. 2 On the hilltops near the road and at the crossroads she stands. 3 At the entrance to the city, beside the gates, she calls: 4 “I appeal to all of you; I call to everyone on earth. 5 Are you immature? Learn to be mature. Are you foolish? Learn to have sense. 6 Listen to my excellent words; all I tell you is right. 7 What I say is the truth; lies are hateful to me. 8 Everything I say is true; nothing is false or misleading. 9 To those with insight, it is all clear; to the well-informed, it is all plain. 10 Choose my instruction instead of silver; choose knowledge rather than the finest gold. 11 “I am Wisdom, I am better than jewels; nothing you want can compare with me. 12 I am Wisdom, and I have insight; I have knowledge and sound judgment. 13 To honor the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil ways and false words. 14 I make plans and carry them out. I have understanding, and I am strong. 15 I help kings to govern and rulers to make good laws. 16 Every ruler on earth governs with my help, officials and nobles alike. 17 I love those who love me; whoever looks for me can find me. 18 I have riches and honor to give, prosperity and success. 19 What you get from me is better than the finest gold, better than the purest silver. 20 I walk the way of righteousness; I follow the paths of justice, 21 giving wealth to those who love me, filling their houses with treasures. 22 “The Lord created me first of all, the first of his works, long ago. 23 I was made in the very beginning, at the first, before the world began. 24 I was born before the oceans, when there were no springs of water. 25 I was born before the mountains, before the hills were set in place, 26 before God made the earth and its fields or even the first handful of soil. 27 I was there when he set the sky in place, when he stretched the horizon across the ocean, 28 when he placed the clouds in the sky, when he opened the springs of the ocean 29 and ordered the waters of the sea to rise no further than he said. I was there when he laid the earth’s foundations. 30 I was beside him like an architect, I was his daily source of joy, always happy in his presence— 31 happy with the world and pleased with the human race. 32 “Now, young people, listen to me. Do as I say, and you will be happy. 33 Listen to what you are taught. Be wise; do not neglect it. 34 Those who listen to me will be happy— those who stay at my door every day, waiting at the entrance to my home. 35 Those who find me find life, and the Lord will be pleased with them. 36 Those who do not find me hurt themselves; anyone who hates me loves death.” (GNT).
Bonus: I was going to use the play on words: Moonraker vs Muckraker… thinking to the James Bond movie. Then I honestly didn’t know what the word moonraker meant, and it is actually quite funny. Moon-raker: “stupid or silly person,” in England, a name traditionally given to Wiltshire people, 1787, from the stock joke about fools who mistook the reflection of the moon in a pond for a cheese and tried to rake it out.