The Way

Proverbs 30:18-20

Three things are too wonderful for me;
four I do not understand:
the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a serpent on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
and the way of man with a virgin.
This is the way of an adulteress:
she eats and wipes her mouth
and says, "I have done no wrong."

The proverb contemplates the mystery and grace of "ways." There is the graceful flight of the eagle in the sky, moving its way through the air and the winds seemingly with ease. There is the serpent without legs sliding along easily over rock. There is the way of the small ship navigating over high waves. And then there is the way of the "man with a virgin" - the way of a man wooing a maiden or a husband intimate with his new bride, a picture of the mystery of love that brings physical intimacy.

These "ways" have sacredness about them as one contemplates the physics and the beauty about them. How repugnant, then, it shows the way of an adulteress, who treats sex as nothing more than having a meal. The eagle is nothing more than a bird flapping its wings, the snake a wiggly creature, the ship but a boat floating on water, and the man with a maiden - well, that is nothing more than a man giving way to lust. There is no mystery, no beauty, no sacredness; there is just creatures getting around and carrying out their instinct. Nothing is good, nothing is bad; the "ways" are simply creatures going through the motion.

The adulteress can make a decent living with such an attitude. So can anyone doing what they do merely for the profit. But what they lose is their soul, their ability to see mystery, to sense the sacred, and ultimately to know real joy.