Our daughter is named, in part, after this book of the Bible. I loved the name Sophia because of Sophia (meaning wisdom) in The Shack. Nathan’s favourite book of the Bible is Proverbs, which means wisdom, and Sophia means wisdom.

Our theological college principle once said that Nathan and I get to the same place eventually, but by different roads. It was a very good observation and has been proven to be true many times, this example being one of my favourites!

Anyway, enough about us. Proverbs.

Reading it through this time, I was struck by two themes of the book. The first is the acquisition of wisdom generally, and how the writer personifies wisdom as if we were to seek, search for, keep watch for, actively pursue, an actual person.

The second theme is the pithy sayings spread throughout the book, which are more like words of advice about particular things. Some of these make more sense to me than others, but I like how the two threads intertwine and switch around.

And then we finish with a famous and beautiful passage about a woman, The woman of Proverbs 31. I admire her, she seems like she’s got everything together. The sandwich filler in her fridge is not going off. But I’m going to say something controversial now: I think she’s heading for a breakdown. Because nobody can juggle all that stuff, so well, on so little sleep. I’ve tried. Eventually, she’s going to crash.

Favourite verse: Proverbs 16.3: commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.

Aidan fell asleep listening to Proverbs once.