When there were no oceans, [wisdom] was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water (Proverbs 8:24).

I can scarcely think of anything more basic -- and yet more necessary -- than water.  It's all around us, falling from the sky and seeping up from the ground; it's as common as life itself.  But at the same time, if we're ever forced to go without it, we shrivel up and die.  Water is foundational for human life and well-being.

Yet there's something even more foundational for human life and well-being:  divine wisdom.

Before there were any oceans, before there were any lakes or rivers or ponds or streams, before there were any springs or wells, before there was any rainfall -- there was God and His wisdom.  And that says something.  Given the pre-eminence, priority, and primacy of water in our world, it's pretty significant to suggest that wisdom is even more powerful, being so important that it was established long before the first oceans appeared on the earth, before springs burst up through the ground.  Maybe the chronology seems like a minor point -- and maybe it is a minor point, for all I know -- but I'm deeply challenged to consider the implications for my own life.  I would never go more than a day or two without water; my body needs it, craves it, absorbs it.  However, I'm often fine with going several days at a time without deliberating seeking and absorbing God's wisdom for my life -- if I'm really in a busy stage of life, or if I'm traveling, or if I'm tired, or if my routine is otherwise disrupted.  In these situations, I don't read the Bible or pray or even just sit still for a few seconds to meditate on the wisdom that God has already infused upon my heart.

I don't want it to be this way, however.  I want to want wisdom for my soul, like my body wants water for its day-to-day well-being.  Because without God's wisdom, I will shrivel up and die -- even as my body keeps putzing along, tanked up on electrolytes.  Water is good, of course.  But wisdom is even better.