Proverbs 22:2 KJV
The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.
A friend shared a post on Facebook. It was about the marriage of the son of Abubakar Atiku to the daughter of Nuhu Ribadu. One statement from the post is: How many times have you heard their kids marry the average Nigerians? Someone made a comment in response to the statement thus: Where will they meet the average Nigerian now? It was a question and many funny responses kept pouring in. Then I threw the above scripture in: "The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all." Moments later, I got a response thus: Joseph Ayeni not by worldly standards, the unseen demarcation is just too large.
Again, I replied with yet another scripture: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein." Obviously, the knowledge of the truth is missing in the vast majority of people. They are so embroiled in the affairs of the world albeit mostly from the peripheral such that they do not understand the very essence and workings of it. Let me state clearly that God [the Word] works in the affairs of men. Do not be deluded that God will not or does not require everything from the hands of men, regardless of whether they worship Him or not. The world shall be judged by the same Word that it was made by. Think on this.
Travel with me a little bit. I am going somewhere with this. If God, the Word, has said that the rich and poor meet, then the rich and poor meet. This is as simple as it is written. There is nothing to be added or removed from it. It does not require any interpretation. The question we should ask is not where they will meet the average Nigerian because they do meet the average Nigerian daily. This presupposes that the average Nigerian is of lesser status to them. The question should be, do they regard the status of the average Nigerian to consider them worthy of such an honour as taking them in marriage?
I do not know who is worthy of more honour. Is it the average Nigerian who has less troubles but rich in peace that should be found of more honour or is it the restless rich whose desires are never satisfied and can only be compared with the graveyard that never fills up or the fire that burns without consummation?
Spare me a little in my foolishness as I try to push my follies to you. That a man is average and has no means as the rich may not necessarily mean that such a man has a peaceful life. The question is one of having less burdens that he or she can manage. This is not even the question we are trying to address. The thought that the average Nigerian does not meet with the rich class of elites should not even come to the mind of anyone who has been granted access to divine wisdom as we are using to divide this matter.
The rich Nigerians have businesses but the average Nigerians work in those businesses. The rich Nigerians build big houses, palatial homes and estates that they both dwell in and run as means of wealth, but rich Nigerians do not manage same; the average do. The rich Nigerians attend mosques and churches with average Nigerians. Rich Nigerians go through the airports, they visit cinemas, they have a reason to go to restaurants, hotels, clubs and other such social services. Rich Nigerians are not the people who work in those places. It is the average and less than average Nigerians, who do.
The bank account officers of rich Nigerians are average Nigerians. Those who launder stolen monies of rich Nigerians are average Nigerians. I can go on and on. The question is not where rich Nigerians will meet the average Nigerians. The question once again is, Do the rich Nigerians consider the average Nigerians worthy of the honour of marriage? This should be the matter, indeed. To that, your guess, whatever it is, is as good as mine.
The most pathetic aspect of this conversation is how void the mind of man is, to seek to venture into the things that they have no insight of. The scripture is God in print. You cannot give your heart to the affairs of the world and expect to glean the application of the nuggets of scriptural Truth. This life is God's. If the sun and rain of God bless mankind regardless of status, then expect that all men, or indeed any man can meet any woman. Like the other three things that are too wonderful for the wise man of the book of Proverbs, how do you explain the fourth one: the way of a man with a maid?
Males and females meet. The rich male meets the rich female often based on the plan and agreement of those who beget and superintend them, not often at their own whims. Where a rich boy or girl decides to make own choice, he or she is considered a black sheep. You are labelled a rebel or nonconformist if you exercise your freewill because you have hitherto been programmed to operate differently.
The issue is more of attraction than otherwise. We attract things to ourselves based on the information that is available to us. Information we receive through our upbringing inform our essence which in turn influence what we attract. The information make up our paradigm, the programs that run within our subconscious minds and control everything we do. The rich or elite, like the average or any other are influenced by the information in their subconscious minds too. They are raised to act a certain way, and the majority of them act the script accordingly. This is what informs the choices we make.
The same way that the average look down on the less than average is the same way that the rich look down on the average. It is usually a status thing; it is not about whether they meet or where they meet because they do surely meet on a regular basis. But because the average are not considered by the elite and rich to be of any worth besides doing their bid, the question of honouring them with their lifelong vows of companionship would not usually arise.
At the end of the day, it is all and only about the choices we make. Whether those choices are informed of external inducements, programming or manipulation from friends, colleagues, families or whoever, we made a choice and we shall reap the recompense of same.
Where there may be a reversal in recompense in a situation where programming goes wrong, only the Divine Hands of mercy, the Infinite Mind, who knows and sees all things, can determine that according to His pleasure. He stays mysterious yet, and nothing can change that.
However, we must be guided by the law of sowing and reaping and we must be careful about what we do because it is divine law that works in nature. It cannot be over-emphasized that the rich and poor do meet, but what we must apply our minds to is why they attract meeting and the use they put the opportunities to. It is hardly different from why they attracted them: to use them to feather their nest. The motives are often selfish, and hardly as selfless as the concept of share and transfer of wealth. They are always careful to keep it within the cycle.
