Today’s Scripture Reading (May 13,
2015): Job 28
Extraterrestrial
life exists. At least that is the theory that many scientists are convinced is
true. The problem is that we really don’t know what such life will look like.
It is a problem that science fiction writers have wrestled with as long as the
genre has been in existence. There is a reason why most of the aliens we see
gracing our T.V. screens have two arms and two legs – and it is not that
science fiction writers expect that that is what extraterrestrial life will
look like, but rather a concession to the fact that that is what the actors
available to play the part look like. (There is a story that the reason Vulcans
on “Star Trek: The Original Series” were aliens with pointy ears and strange
eyebrows is because the creators wanted an alien who was a regular on the
series but didn’t have the budget for a major make-up job every week. Even the
Klingons on the “Original Series” looked more like their human counterparts
than they did on the series and movies that followed.) We may add ridges or fur
or change the contour of the ears or the texture of the skin, but the aliens
that we see in the movies and on T.V. simply look suspiciously like us. But the
likelihood is that if we do find life somewhere else it will not look anything
like us – in fact, it is likely to be so different that it will quite possibly
be unrecognizable. But even so, scientists are sure that life is out there. We
may not be ready to see it, but the universe to too big and too diverse for the
creatures of our earth to be its only inhabitants.
Life simply
seems to find a way. And that shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us. Life, even
on this planet, exists in some very uninhabitable climates. From the hottest
places on the planet to the coldest, from the top of the highest mountain to
the depth of the deepest ocean - life exists. This planet is simply teeming
with it. Job understands that. And that makes his problem even worse, because
while life seems to exist all around him, wisdom seems to be absent. His
friends seem to think that they have wisdom, but Job doesn’t see it. Their
wisdom was based on their own misconceptions of God. And Job is also sure that
he does not possess the wisdom that his situation seems to require. He doesn’t
understand what exactly is happening to him, but he is equally sure that true
wisdom would be able to reveal the reason. But, unfortunately, that wisdom was
simply unavailable.
Life may be
discovered on the earth and under the earth, and maybe even in the stars that
we gaze up to at night. But wisdom, the council of heaven, is unavailable
anywhere we might look for it. But it might also be true that we share the same
problem in our search for wisdom as we have in our search for extraterrestrial
life, we simply don’t know what it is that we are looking for - we don’t really
know what real wisdom looks like.
Maybe Isaiah
summed this up the best. “For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares
the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”
(Isaiah 55:8-9). The truth is that
true wisdom is not something that can be bought or sold, it is not something
that can be dug out of a mine and it is not something that we will find on some
distant planet even if we do find life there. It is something that can only
come from God – if we are able to even recognize it.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 29
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