"For wisdom is better than rubies"

Wisdom is also a "chain to adorn your neck."

I had once a ruby necklace on a fine gold chain. It's demise was a knot that developed in the chain. I brought the necklace into the laundry room where I have a florescent light. My intent was to use a couple of pins to loosen and eventually untangle the knot. It took too  long to do in one sitting, and by the time I returned to the laundry room, the necklace had disappeared. Probably lost in a pile of laundry...or the trash can...or that mysterious place where socks' mates go. I don't know, but what I do know is that the knot was too much for me to untangle.

That necklace came to mind the other day when I was trying to untangle a different knot. The one inside me. The one where there are fine links of joy and beauty...and links, just as fine, of sorrows and  things not so beautiful, like fear. I can follow a few links of joy and beauty until they get lost in the knot; and I can follow a few links of sorrow and fear until they, too, get lost in the knot. And I cannot separate the links enough to follow them all the way through to free the ruby.

There are so many links of joy in my life. Weddings, for one! So many links to thanksgiving and blessings beyond what I ever dreamed to ask my Father for...like daughters-in-law I adore, and new extended family members that we are blessed beyond the beyond to become a limb on their family tree! What a beautiful, untangled chain I would have adorning my neck if these were the only links on it. But, no, there are other links that are very messy, scary, and knotted. A Master Craftsman is needed. A Jeweler who knows the real value of the chain and the ruby and who has unlimited time and patience to untangle the knot, one link at a time.

So, as I was saying, I was trying to untangle this knot. Praying through it. Bringing one link before the Lord, then another link, trying to understand how to undo it all. Then the picture of my ruby
necklace came to mind. And with it came this- "O you of little faith, why are you so afraid?"

"Afraid?" I asked.

"Yes. Afraid," He replied.

Quiet, on my end of the conversation. "Hmm...yes...sorrows. What if's. Messes. Knots. It's all scary. "

Then this from the Master Jeweler, who knows how to untangle the knot in me-"I never asked you, 'What are you afraid of.'"

Quiet, again, on my part. I had been trying to name each link. To understand the knot. The Master Jeweler gets to the center of the tangled mess, takes the pin from my hand, and points to faith. Pins it.

I don't have to name the links in the chain. He never asked me to. I don't have to follow a few links called joy only to loose them in the knot. Or a few links called fear. I only have to answer the question, "Why are you so afraid?'" (hint-it has something to do with little faith)

Wisdom is better than rubies.  It's a chain to adorn your neck. It's linked to faith. And the knots that keep us from wearing that ruby necklace? Do we not have a Master Jeweler? It may sound ridiculous, but I still expect one day to walk into my laundry room and find that necklace. It may still be in a knot...but then again, maybe not!



written by: Carolyn Roehrig