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REFLECTION

The theme for our reflection is a wise ruling. A ruling is an authoritative decision or pronouncement, especially one made by a judge. A wise ruling is a decision or pronouncement made based on careful thought, discernment or good judgement. King Solomon encountered a challenging situation where two women claimed to be the mother of a child. It was more challenging because there were no witnesses to this case. To ensure that justice was served and the baby given to his rightful mother, King Solomon had to resolve a very important issues. The issue is whether or not a true mother of a child would have him dead or she would out of love lose him and have him live in the custody of another woman? To resolve the issue, King Solomon decided to use the test of emotional commitment which is the outward or visible demonstration of love by a true mother. He wanted to know which of the two mothers was emotionally committed to the child to the extent that she would prefer losing the child to save his life.

To resolve the above issue, King Solomon attempted to harm the baby by having him split into two and shared among them but the true mother demonstrated emotional commitment and love for the her son. “Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” Then the king answered, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.” (1 kings 3:26-27). In other words, the wise ruling of King Solomon led to the discovery of the true mother of the child, respect and preservation of human dignity and justice. The second woman’s lack of emotional commitment to the baby and false claim was exposed through King Solomon’s wise approach and ruling in the above delicate case. At the end of the day his wise ruling was based on love and through love justice was served. Those in position of leadership and in the judiciary are usually called upon to adjudicate on sensitive or delicate issues bothering on human dignity and justice. We must always rely prayerfully on the direction and wisdom of God and approach issues with love and respect for human dignity, peace and justice. A good tool to help us make wise decisions in life is the Scripture or the Word of God. We shall be endowed with godly wisdom to make discerning decisions if we continually feed on His Word. Shalom

PRAYER

Holy Spirit, lead us to make wise decisions in the pursuit of love, truth, human dignity and justice in our broken world. Amen.