This morning, I read about the violence that came to David’s family after his sin with Bathsheba. I read about the rape of Tamar, the murder of Amnon, and the flight of Absalom. And then there’s that great episode where David’s advisor Joab sends a widow in to see David. This woman has a made-up story designed to get David to allow Absalom to return home.
The woman said something to David that made me, for the first time, put myself in Absalom’s place. I think of Absalom as a villain, but now I see that in this whole story he might represent me.
In 2 Samuel 14:14 the widow says to David, “‘Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.’”
That’s a verse about me. I’m twice banished, the first time an inherited banishment I got from Father Adam and my own inherent bent toward evil, and the second through my own choices, which led me far from God. Just like the prodigal son, except I’ve left more than once.
But, the wise widow says, God devises ways so that I don’t remain banished. The big way is the cross, which healed my broken relationship with God once for all time. But every day there are little ways, small graces that come in the form of encouraging words and helping hands that keep me close to God’s people, and therefore to God.
On my own, I’m self-destructive, drawn to this glittering world like a moth to a candle. But by God’s grace, I don’t have to live a single moment on my own. He brought me back from banishment, and won’t let me go again.
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