Tablet talk

When my first grandchild was born, a friend gave me this erasable tablet with the suggestion that I use it to teach him to write his name. As you can see, we’re not making much progress when he’s on his own. But I’m guessing that in the next half year (he is now 3 ½) we’ll see an attempt at spelling J-O-S-I-A-H.

My greater concern is that he gets it “right” on his Proverbs 3:3-4 “tablet”:

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. (NIV, an identical verse is in Proverbs 7:3)

            Although the proverb names just two characteristics, they’re powerful:

            Love conveys kindness and mercy, the type of outlook that seeks justice for others.

            Faithfulness expresses loyalty, behaving responsibly.

The “bind them around the neck” conveys the idea that such behavior will be as noticeable as wearing a richly ornamented necklace. Talk about fashion coming full circle since Bible times! (How “fashion” changes.  When I graduated from high school in the ‘60s, girls wore demure single pearls on fine chains!)

So where does one shop for the “love” and “faithfulness” necklaces? That’s where the next verse, so much better known, comes in:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  (vv. 5-6)

These days of the electronic revolution have brought a new meaning to the word “tablet.”  In Bible times, a “tablet” was usually a clay plaque inscribed with a sharp instrument. When I was a child, “tablet” referred to a thick notebook of glue-bound newsprint with wide-apart writing lines for little learners. What did these cost?  Twenty-five cents?  Fifty cents?

 And now we have mini-computer$ (dollar sign intended) even smaller than those newsprint “tablets.”  Because they can download virtue as well as vice, they bring new meaning to that old verse. We make the choice of what is dumped into our minds.

 It comes back to this:  Trusting God. Acknowledging Him in our behavior and life choices. And making sure that unworthy scrawling is erased through confession, so that God can write His imprint on our lives.