Colossians 2:2-4 “ I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase after other so-called mysteries or “the Secret.” Today's episode is telling us that all wisdom and knowledge can only be found in Jesus. If we need more wisdom in knowledge we don't have to go far. We can just sit with the Lord and ask Him to enlighten us and fill us with the wisdom and knowledge we need. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Tapestry of Love
Colossians 2:2-4 “ I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.”
I chose this verse for today because it is sort of a continuation of yesterday’s verse. Yesterday, we talked about the secret surprise and how that secret was Jesus living within us. Today, we are talking about Jesus again. I also chose this verse because I loved the language used in it. I was going back and forth between this translation, which is the message translation, and the passion translation like I used yesterday. I think, overall, this translation explains this in a way that is easier to understand. The first sentence is the one I loved the most. Here is what is said in the passion translation, “I am contending for you that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together into love’s fabric.” Isn’t that a beautiful image? Our hearts are wrapped up in the comfort of heaven. That is wonderful.
The message translation says, "I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God.” I loved this one, too, as picturing a tapestry of love is great imagery. It was also similar to the passion translation, which said, “woven together into love’s fabric.” So, besides nice language and fancy imagery, what does this all mean? It begins by saying that we are in touch with everything there is to know about God. So, no big deal, right? I don’t think he means that we need to actually know everything there is to know about God, as that is impossible. None of us could possibly know everything there is to know about God.
The next line clarifies this a bit. It says, “Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery.” Do you know who God is? Have you spent time in the scriptures, have you paid attention at church when they are reading the sacred Word of God? When you know who God is, you can be confident and at rest with the knowledge you have. You are confident because you know the truth. You can be confident because your eyes are focused on Jesus Christ. God has revealed this mystery to you and you are confident in this knowledge.
This verse confirms that God’s great mystery is Jesus. Just like we heard yesterday. The next line says, “All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else.” This is an important one for us to hear and remember. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in Jesus and nowhere else. This is important because we tend to look everywhere else. How many times have we looked to the world for wisdom and knowledge? How many times have we read books that have nothing to do with Jesus in search of wisdom and knowledge?
I have found in my own life that I go to the Lord if I need prayers for something. If I need a miracle to happen, a mountain to be moved, someone I love to be healed, or things to go smoothly, I turn to the Lord and pray for His help. However, when I need wisdom and knowledge, I turn to books, and my go-to is not usually scripture. I will search online for books that have to do with the topic I’m struggling with. I ask friends or family what they think I should do. I didn’t know that I could go to the Lord when I needed knowledge or wisdom. That may seem silly to you, and yet I don’t think I am the only one that didn’t know this.
It wasn’t until I went to the Encounter School of Ministry that I realized that if you needed wisdom and knowledge, you could go and sit with the Lord, and He would give it to you. What really cemented this in my mind was when I started to examine some of my favorite Saints. Saint Catherine of Sienna is a doctor of the church, and yet she did not have any formal education. She was one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day, and through her personal influence, thousands of people returned to the church. She did not spend time studying theology. She didn't spend time online researching all she could about the Lord and about Jesus. She went right to the source. She spent time with Jesus himself in her prayer time. She spent a long time in her room, just her and the Lord.
St Thérèse of Lisieux was unable to attend a university or engage in systematic study. She died young; nevertheless, from this day forward, she will be honored as a doctor of the Church, an outstanding recognition that raises her in the esteem of the entire Christian community far beyond any academic title. She loved Jesus; she spent time in prayer with Him. She went to the Lord to gain all the wisdom and knowledge she needed. She relied on Jesus for everything, and He, in turn, gave her everything. She died at age 24. Can you imagine contributing so much to the world in your short 24 years here on earth that you become a doctor of the church? I barely knew who I was at 24, never mind being so sure of who God was at that time.
These are just two examples of so many examples. If you look at a lot of the Saints, they weren’t necessarily the most educated people, and yet they had so much knowledge. The verse above ends with, “I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.” The Lord is where we can get our wisdom and knowledge. The world may try to convince us otherwise. They have plenty of things they are trying pass off to us as knowledge and wisdom. I think what this verse is telling us is that we can know if someone is leading us off on a wild goose chase if they are trying to tell us something that goes against Jesus and what He is telling us. If all knowledge and wisdom can be found in Him, then if something we learn contradicts what He is saying or what He stood for, then we know it is not the truth.
If you need more wisdom and knowledge in your life, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t, then the answer is to spend more time sitting with the Lord and ask Him to give you the answers you are looking for. I have started a journal where I just ask the Lord, what would you like to tell me about… and then I usually pick a topic to put in. For instance, I have asked Him to give me more knowledge about His love and forgiveness. I have also asked about what He wanted to tell me about the sacramental graces in a marriage. I ask the Lord what He wants to tell me, and then I just write down whatever comes to my mind. I have really enjoyed it. I invite you to give it a try. If you have unanswered questions or you wish to have more knowledge in a certain area, sit with the Lord and ask Him to help you understand it better or fill you with more knowledge in that area. I am sure you will be surprised by what you hear when you sit and listen.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we thank you for being all we need. We thank you for filling us with wisdom and knowledge. Lord, we ask for more. We ask for more wisdom and more knowledge. We ask that you help us to come to you when we are struggling and when we are searching. Lord, we ask that you help us to open our spiritual ears so that we can hear you. Help us to be open to your wisdom and your knowledge. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I! May the grace and favor or our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you. Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in April 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Move in my ways and you will grow at the speed of light. Only if you move with what I tell you will you grow. Come, my children, and I will show you my love.”