Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

---

6 Jan 2012
            Good morning, dear people.
            I’m back at home to pick up Thano.  Becki stayed at the beach house.  We’ll be heading that way again asap.  I need to do a few things first…like send this.
            Blessings on your day.
                        Love, Dad/Ray

---

6 January
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.  I remember taking time to look closely at one such hair from the back of our dog, Daisy.  I have a jeweler’s loupe that allows me to see things microscopically.  That may not sound very impressive—but I was impressed—beholding how it was so 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, has also sent me into marvel mode.  (I guess it doesn’t take much, does it?)
            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 advises His followers to avoid presumptuous stupid talk by making rash impulsive promises, then seeking to add credible weight to those promises by enlisting things we didn’t make and can’t really control. Instead let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no.”  Even though this kind of “swearing” that Jesus addresses is normal in our culture, the practical point is that you and I have no business being arrogant or overly confident concerning things 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.