“She gets up before dawn to
prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day’s work for her servant
girls.” Proverbs 31:15
I’ve looked everywhere and can’t
find a single servant! (Smile.) And I have to confess dawn was a few hours ago.
It would seem I slept right through it…again. (Another smile.)
Lord, the Old Testament
contains the signposts that point to You. How is this passage a signpost? Or is
this showing a Proverbs 31 woman to be both a servant and a commander?
To serve is to live through
humility and generosity as Jesus has shown us how to do.
This Proverbs woman prepares
breakfast for her household. Does that mean she makes food for her servants as
well? She serves the servant.
Commanding is more complicated.
There’s the authority that comes with autonomy. We have the ability to set the
course for our own lives; to make the choices that can take us to safe harbours
or leave us becalmed, drifting helplessly with the tide. (I am still smiling
about being described as a merchant ship so I couldn’t resist the nautical
metaphor.)
Yet, there are times when we can’t escape the currents, when life simply
happens and we are forced to shape our lives in response. Hmmm, maybe those are
seasons of service as opposed to command.
You know? I never thought of it
that way before. I always thought being trapped by circumstances was being helpless. Yet if I
reflect on the wilderness years, I was serving my family as best I could
without the heart of Jesus as my strength. This puts a whole new light on the entire situation! This is a good
thing!
I feel that being a servant is inherently
part of a woman’s DNA. It’s only when sin entered the world that service became
servitude. There is a big difference.
Yet, taking command is also
serving. I am led to reflect on a terrible accident that happened years ago. I have shared this before but these events have had a profound impact. I can close my eyes and I am right there, kneeling in the drizzly rain.
The rain had made the ground slippery. While coming down a grassy hill, our
neighbour’s tractor flipped and pinned him beneath. His daughter phoned us
first because we were closer than the fire department. In a matter of minutes, we were there. My ex,
using his heavy lifting knowledge, managed to raise the tractor just enough so
I could gently pull our neighbour out from underneath the back wheel. I did my best
to keep his body in the same position, not knowing what was broken. Here, the slippery grass proved to be a friend. He was a big man.
The First Aid training I'd had as a child took over.
I took command, asking for blankets, making sure someone had locked the dogs in the
house, making sure someone was
standing at the end of the driveway to direct EMS to the scene. I kept talking
to my neighbour, who was conscious, assuring him help was on the way and
insisting he didn’t try and move.
My neighbour survived what usually kills. He had
many broken bones and damaged inner organs but, praise God, his spine and neck
weren't affected. I doubt I will ever forget that Mother’s Day. I will add that now I see the hand of God in everything that happened so long ago, how everything fell into place to save a life. Even my ex's understanding of leverage and lifting proved invaluable. Without those skills, we would have been unable to help.
Revisiting this event has me re-thinking what
being in command means. It doesn’t mean I have the right to only please myself although
living alone makes that easy enough in some aspects. A true commander places the
welfare of those he or she commands above their own. And that is Jesus living.
To command is to live through
humility and generosity as Jesus has shown us how to do.
God Bless firefighters, paramedics, the police and hospital staff because what was a one time event for me is something they face every day.
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