Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Passage: Matthew 5:21-48
Focus: “And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.” Matthew 5:36.
I often find myself marveling at the craft and composition skills of the Creator. I don’t have to go further than examining one little hair before being overwhelmed with awe. Recently, I took time to look closely at one hair from the back of our dog, Daisy. It’s precisely shaped and sized and colored. How do the nutrients and molecules in her body know how and where to deposit themselves to manufacture such a perfect component? Examining a single scale from a fish, like a colorful parrot fish, also sends me into marvel mode.
Needless to say, you and I are composed of a lot more than hairs. There is bone, connective tissue, skin, glands, organs, appendages, eyes, ears…ad infinitum. It’s for sure that I had nothing to do with making all that stuff…let alone with sustaining it. And it’s absurd to think it all just kind of accidentally happened on its own.
Jesus stated that the ideal way to do business in life is to avoid making artificial promises. Instead let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no.” But even if this kind of “swearing” that Jesus addressed was normal in our culture, the practical point is that you and I have no business being arrogant or overly confident with something we had nothing to do with, and over which we have almost no control. I’ll make it personal: my promises and commitments are no better than my own integrity. And that is something I can and must control.