Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

A wife of noble character who can find?
    She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
    and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm,
    all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax
    and works with eager hands.

• Proverbs 31:10-13

(But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)

• Joshua 2:6

She sets about her work vigorously;
    her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable,
    and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff
    and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor
    and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
    for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed;
    she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

• Proverbs 31:17-22

One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

• Acts 16:14

She makes linen garments and sells them,
    and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity;
    she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
    and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women do noble things,
    but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Honor her for all that her hands have done,
    and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

• Proverbs 31:24-31

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week, Babs only got out of bed to have our Bible study.  She was not sick, but she was illustrating that we had plenty of time to plan the wedding.

But this week, she put her idle hands to work.

I had been in a meeting with Mary Sheltie Jones and Thomas ver Waarloosd and the presidents of the police and fire auxiliaries.  We were discussing thoughts for next year’s fundraising campaign for the Feeding the Homeless At Tracy (FHAT).  Babs said she had something to do.

When I returned home, the front porch had pumpkins and harvest style decorations filling half the porch.  We had a new welcome mat.  Okay, we had a welcome mat since I had thrown the old one out during my wife’s prolonged illness.  Why have a welcome mat when you had no energy to welcome anyone?  People still knocked on the door with or without a welcome mat.

When I came through the door, I was hit by the aroma of the potpourri and started sneezing.

I called out, “Babs, what have you done?”

Babs came from the kitchen.  She was smiling, “How do you like everything?”

I groaned, “It is a little too much, too quickly.  I may be allergic to something in your potpourri.  We can either tone that down of remove the offensive ingredients.  But my real question is why?  And why now?”

Babs said, “I was reading the description of a wife of noble character, and I realized that the wedding plans are easy compared to what I have to do to become a wife of noble character.  I want to take no shortcuts.  Do you have any idea where I can get flax?”

I made the hand signal for time out.  I walked over and gave her a hug.  “I like all that you have done.  Maybe it was just the wall of aroma that hit me with the potpourri, but I might need to have Dr. Mel compare the ingredients to my allergy list.  Even that is salvageable.  But do you have any idea what flax is?”

Babs said, “Proverbs 31:13 says that the wife of noble character works with her hands and obtains the flax and wool.  I called Cole and Sally Dalton.  They own the County Line Farm.  The goats that they house for the Casey’s adopted son are milking goats that do not require shearing.  Angora goats produce mohair, but they aren’t productive as milkers.  They don’t have sheep wool, per se, but they have held onto some of the llama fiber from the spring shearing.  I’m thinking flax has something to do with that.”

I smiled, “Yes, dear.  Flax is a plant, but when dried, the fiber can be gathered and spun just like wool.  Flax is where they got fine linen in biblical days.  Remember that Rahab hid the Israel spies on her roof, under the flax that had been laid out to dry.”

Babs smiled, “I knew you could tell me what it was used for.  Sally said that she kept some of the llama fiber, which is used like wool, to try her hand at using a spinning wheel.  If for no other reason, she could demonstrate the way they used to make clothing in the old days.”

I chuckled, “And that is why I wanted you to take a timeout.  When I was little, every woman had a sewing machine in the house, and she knew how to use it.  But then when they started mass-producing clothing, it became cheaper to buy clothing.  A lot of that stuff in Proverbs 31 is based on how things worked then, but if you want to learn how to work with it, have some fun.  But as these verses, Proverbs 31:10-31 start off, you are worth more than rubies to me.  I trust you.  I have full confidence in you.  You bring me no harm, and you are very good to me.  That does not change regardless of the era in which we live.  But caring for the flax and wool is just the tip of that iceberg.  Then you spin the fiber into thread.  Then you weave the thread into cloth, but you save some of the thread to sew the cloth together after you have cut the cloth to a specific pattern.  Either all that or you manage the household budget and allot so much to new clothing.  It accomplishes the same thing.”

Babs sighed, “I was thinking we could remove one of the cars and use the extra garage space for a spinning wheel and loom, but you put a wet blanket on that one.  But then in verse 17 it says that I need to have strong arms.”

I smiled, “Not really.  It says you need to have strong arms for the task at hand.  If you are not plowing fields, spinning fiber to make linen, and all that other stuff, you might still buy a 25lb bag of rice.  But even then, when you go to the wholesale warehouse store, I usually go along with you.  I can do that heavy lifting.  Okay?”

Babs looked disappointed.  “But I already have dumbbells.”

I snickered, “Those dumbbells are the kind that you carry with you on your walks.  While you swing your arms back and forth, they can build a little muscle, but you are not going to become a bodybuilder with those little things.”

Babs huffed and crossed her arms, “Now you are making fun of me.”

I held out a hand to hold hers, “No, Babs, I do not want to be married to a woman whose muscles have muscles.  For one thing, I would look like a wimp sitting next to her in church, but I think the swinging the arm thing while walking is a good addition to your exercise.  But then it gets back to the spindle, more about making cloth.  But then it mentions the arm and the hand to help the poor.  You already do that.  The part about wearing scarlet is to be in contrast to the snow, clothing designed to be warm.  But the purple was the most expensive of clothing in those days, reserved for royalty mostly, royalty and the ultra rich of their day.  Remember that Lydia was a seller of purple in Acts 16.”

Babs scrunched her nose, “So, I guess that I do not have to sell the clothing that I make, like it says in verse 24?”

I smiled, “No, Sweetie, by having your eyes out for the household budget and managing the household, you can take that load off my shoulders.  After all, I trust you, Babs.  That is where this poem starts.”

Babs asked, “This is a poem?”

I nodded, “Yes, and not just any kind of poem.  It is an acrostic.  If you saw the poem in Hebrew, each verse would start with each consecutive letter in the Hebrew alphabet, starting with Aleph to Taw.  So, you have some metaphor here with poetic language, all trapped in an acrostic, that are wrapped around a wife of noble character being someone who does not have idle hands.  She does what she can to promote her husband and in the end is recognized for being the rock that holds the family together.  And you, my dear, can be all of that without the spinning wheels and looms in the garage.”

Babs sighed, “That’s a relief, but I still want to take some classes at the craft store.  Maybe an art class or ceramics.  I just went through everything that a wife of noble character had to do, and I got carried away.  Do I have to be careful of other acrostics in the Bible?”

I smiled, “Psalm 119 is an acrostic.  There are twenty-two sets of eight verses each.  Each starting with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet from start to finish.  Then all of Lamentations is an acrostic of one type or another.  Lamentations 3 is 66 verses, but the other four chapters are 22 verses each.  But I do not think we have to look out for them, just understand that poetry and metaphors convey a message.  When Jesus gave His ‘I AM’ statements, He was not saying that He was literally a vine or a door.  Those are symbols to illustrate what Jesus does for us.  If we are a branch, we have no life without the vine.  That kind of thing.”

Babs snuggled in close to me. “You are so smart when it comes to this stuff.”

I shrugged, “I’ve been at it for a while longer than you have Babs.  You are catching on fast.”

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

My wife never saw a craft that she did not want to try.  In having said that, I guess she never watched woodworking.  I have the trouble of getting rid of tools and materials.  I think the crafting people say that there is such a glut of crafting supplies out there that reselling is nearly impossible and most people already have everything that they need.  The church where I attend has little need for such things.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.