"Young Woman"

 "My lover is dark and dazzling, better than ten thousand others! His head is the finest gold, his wavy hair is black as a raven. His eyes sparkle like doves beside springs of water; they are set like jewels washed in milk. His cheeks are like gardens of spices giving off fragrance. His lips are like lilies, perfumed with myrrh. His arms are like rounded bars of gold, set with beryl. His body is like bright ivory, glowing with lapis lazuli. His legs are like marble pillars set in sockets of finest gold. His posture is stately, like the noble cedars of Lebanon. His mouth is sweetness itself; he is desirable in every way. Such, O women of Jerusalem, is my lover, my friend." (S.O.S. 5:10-16 NLT)

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7)

  How is this not God's handiwork? Where are the signs that point to His will and purposes? If it is wisdom and instruction that we are looking for, then we must fear God! The point to that, is to pay attention to what He says, as though your life depends upon it! You take everything He makes known to you as the most important thing that there is! As if you are living through any major incident, where the instructions you hear are guiding you to safety and keeping you safe. 

  If you need a practical example, the one from Acts 27 is one that comes to mind. The issue at hand was one of fearing God; in this case, Paul was God's spokesman; who with great wisdom instructed those who were in charge of the ship, causing them to listen carefully to everything he told them to do, because if they did not follow every single order, then there were going to be casualties; but if they obeyed every instruction, there would not be one single life lost, not a one! 

  There is mostly enough to understand about certain situations, just by observing the physical evidence; but there is nothing to be seen in the area that matters most, because that area is hidden from our eyes and is happening in the spiritual world that is all around us. In the case above, Paul perceived what was going to happen, as God gave him knowledge of it; not the entire ordeal, but the parts he needed to be convincing enough to get them to fear God, over that which they physically knew. They could not see the physical evidence; neither did they want to even try; but, with Paul's convincing, they feared God enough to wait for the physical evidence to appear.

  In this condition of confusion and doubt, even those who were the most unwilling to listen, they had no choice; there was those who had command of the ship which could perceive Paul knew what the outcome would be and how important it was to listen carefully to what he told them to do; which made even those unwilling, to do what they otherwise would not do. God works in mysterious ways, because He is doing things that no one can see; if we could see what He was doing, they would not be very mysterious! 

  To the answer of the riddle, it was, "Silence." Something oddly important to the beginning of wisdom! Not that God does not give us a voice, but that nothing we say will prevent us from hearing Him; most importantly, what we say in our hearts! This is so important, I am certain that God will make this point obvious to me, as I hope He will to as many that listen! By the way, there is something very different between affect and effect; but they are almost never able to be torn apart...

"What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God." (Romans 9:22-26)