Imago Scriptura 98 - Proverbs - Center

Its been a quiet last nearly two weeks since I posted.  Part of this is that I am working on a compilation of some of my images and reflections for a devotional book I'm working on and part of it is due to the strange nature of reading through Proverbs as quickly as this reading plan has me doing.  There is so much in Proverbs that requires slow reading - a few verses at a time - rather than trying to read through 2 or 3 chapters every day.  There are definitely themes throughout but a central theme is harder to find.

As I was reading these amazing words, one of my favorite podcasts - the Robcast - started a series on the Wisdom Tradition in Scripture, starting with Proverbs.  One of the podcasts really captured a great sense that I was also hearing in Proverbs - the question of what is at the center of our lives.  As I read through these wisdom sayings, it kept coming back to the question of whether we are filling our lives with the extraneous things or the central things.  For the writers of Proverbs, those central things are holy living, honesty, right relationships, and the importance of Wisdom (both personified as well as more in the sense of an ideal).

This shot is of a piece of beleveld glass that my dad made and now hangs in one of our church windows.  What I love about where it hangs is the way that it just raelly captures the light beautifully and the way that it draws your eyes to the center.  And when one focuses on the center, the rest is still there but its not nearly as "clear."  That's what I feel about seeking this Proverbs kind of Wisdom in life - you can still take in all the rest around you but our lives are focused on the center and from there we can engage everything else.