developing the negative

The Word for today:
Proverbs 31

In the old days, before digital everything, photographs were stored on film.

We still use the verb film, but to our younger readers the noun film may be unfamiliar. Film was a plastic strip which (chemically) held an image captured by a camera. We had to go to the store to buy film and then we would take the film back to the store to be developed.

On the film was a negative image; what was actually bright would be seen as dark; what was actually dark would be seen as bright. The developing process turned the negative (what the camera saw) back into a positive (what the eye sees.)

Q. And the point is?
A. The negative can reveal as much information as the positive.

***

We do well to know what's in the Bible. But what about the things that aren't in there? Would it be instructive to enter into a study of what's not?

I think so. Some facets of God's character are best discerned in absentia.

My favorite in this regard is the word "Thanks." I was once attempting to convince a class that we presume things about Jesus that may not be there. For instance, I said, Jesus never said "Thank you" to any person, as far as we know. (If you think about it, why would he? He made every atom of our being and every molecule of air that we breathe, then died to give us eternal life--so exactly what is it that he would thank us for?)

Since many people see Jesus more as a Mister Manners than as the Resurrected Redeemer, this omission can be unsettling. I mean, if he didn't do that, what else might he not have done?

The students were thankful (!) for that disorienting lesson and asked me to "develop the negative" in class more often. So I (contrarian by nature) was only too willing to oblige…

***

The trick is to type a word into your electronic concordance (1) to see what the Bible doesn't say. (That's how I first discovered Jesus' scarce use of "Thanks.")

One fine Mother's Day, bored out of my mind as the wife in Proverbs 31 was extolled for the 8th Mother's Day sermon out of the last 13, I decided to develop the negative in Proverbs 31. As the sermon droned on, I read and re-read Proverbs 31 for what wasn't there.

Well, I'm happy to report that while developing the negative, I came upon one of the most positive remarks ever encountered in the Bible. The remark is so positive because it's so rare. Here it is:

"He praises her." (Proverbs 31:28)

What's so rare about that? Well, it is one of a just a few times in scripture where the word praise is applied to a person. All other praise is reserved for God.

***

"He praises her." Notice the 's' on the end of the word praise. That 's' puts praise in the constant present. His praise for her is not in the past or in the future, but in the everlasting now.

So I want you guys to go and praise her (whoever she might be) in the everlasting now. That doesn't mean wait for Mother's Day or Sweetheart's Day or your anniversary or the next full moon; it means now.

Which means stop reading, turn off the computer, and go fulfill the Word of God: He praises her.

There. You've proved God's Word to be prophetic. But don't wait around expecting Jesus to thank you.

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(1) An excellent free Bible/concordance program can be downloaded here.