Reference Point Devotional

C: Clap your hands, all peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy (Psalm 47:1 ESV).

L: Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else (Isaiah 45:22 KVJ).

The Greek word for ‘treasure’ here is actually thesaurus (θησαυρός). A familiar meaning of ‘thesaurus,’ and primary for many people, is that it is a book, or database, filled with words and their synonyms. Hana Videen used a different word with a similar meaning in her book The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English ¹, which defines the rarely used Old English term wordhord as a “word-hoard… a hoard or store of words” (2022, 15-16), and she expands the meaning by calling it “…a metaphor for the collection of words and phrases a poet memorized and drew upon for their craft” (2022, 17).

I’ve been anxious lately. Work has piled up, finances have been stretched thin, conflicts have arisen, and I’ve had to rely a lot on others just to get through each day. I’ve been wondering, not if I’m doing enough, but if I AM enough to do what needs to be done to take care of my family, complete my work to the best of my ability, and to even keep friendships alive.

Our profession is centered around information, and one could say that a step above information is wisdom. “Wise and understanding” are two adjectives coupled together to see truth with its application. I really like how one commentary on James describes it: “Understanding has seen how good wisdom in action is and knows why wisdom is good.” [1] Many people would prefer to just be told what to do (i.e., given a list of dos and don’ts). I think James shows that it just does not work that way, because if you know why a certain choice is right or wrong, you will be much better equipped to make the right choices in a broader context.

In antiquity, people used clay vessels for many purposes. One of the main purposes was storage. Jars may hold ordinary, everyday items or preserve rare and important documents.