Proverbs 10:1. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.
If you have parents, you can relate to this proverb. How often did you make your parents either glad or sad with your choices? If you have children, you can really relate to this proverb. How often do your children make you glad or sad with their choices?
There’s a deeper principle at work here than just a simple outworking of the fourth commandment – honor your father and your mother. Solomon is reminding us that we are all connected to each other. No foolish choice is private. It may have been made alone, and carried out in private, but its impact is felt by those who are closes to you too.
Life is meant to be shared, and truly it is. Love connects us all to one another. The foolish prodigal son who takes his inheritance and leaves home is a sorrow to his mother. Why? Because of her deep love for her son. And the beloved prodigal son who is wise and returns home makes his father joyously glad. Why? Because of his deep love for his son.
In this way love creates unmerited suffering. Because of our love for others (especially our children) we hurt when they hurt. We cry when they cry. When they are wise we are glad, and when they are foolish we sorrow. We don’t deserve the pain and suffering that our loved ones bring to our hearts. But we choose this pain and suffering because we have chosen to love.
Is there another option? Only to refuse to love. And that is far worse, for we were made to love.
And we were re-made to love. In Christ, we are all connected to one another by the Spirit of Love. The Holy Spirit who live within us. He is pouring the love of Christ into our hearts. A divine love that frees us to love others in immeasurably powerful ways. But a love that also brings with it great sorrow as we carry one another’s burdens, fulfilling the law of Christ. No, we don’t deserve this suffering, the co-suffering of the body of Christ, but we choose it as we choose Christ over and over again. As we take up our cross to follow Jesus into the life of self-sacrifice.
Jesus was always the wise son. He always made his Heavenly Father glad.
Except on that day, the day of the cross. As Jesus bore our foolishness on the cross, he was transformed from wise son to foolish son in our place. The Father’s gladness was transformed into sorrow. Why? Because of the Father’s love for the world. A love that would bring the rejection of the Son, so that we might never face the rejection of the Father.
You: Are any of your choices bringing sorrow to those who love you?
You in Christ: In Christ you were made to love. How can your union with Christ allow you to love others, even when their choices are painful to you?
Christ in you: Is there someone in your life that you have been refusing to love because it is just too sorrowful? How can Christ in you move you toward that person today?
Pray: Father, help me to see how my choices affect all that love me, including you. And help me to choose love even when it hurts. Amen.
To Live is Christ 