Today's Scripture Reading (May 30, 2025): 1 Samuel 20
What are the significant life
events that you remember? One of the ones that I remember clearly is the night
my paternal grandfather died. He was the first of my grandparents to pass away.
I was an adult with two small children then; the oldest of my kids was four,
and the youngest had just turned one. Grandpa died as a result of a fall. He
had just had surgery on his eyes and wasn't supposed to be doing anything, but
he had always been a very active man. He decided to climb a ladder in his
garage on this day, something he had been told not to do. We think he might
have suffered from a bout of dizziness and had fallen from the ladder and down
a set of concrete stairs. Grandpa died as a result of the brain bleed he had
received from that fall.
It was an incredible night.
My wife and I had visitors when we received the call about the accident. My
brother-in-law and his wife were visiting from the West Coast. At the time, we
were living in a small town and had to drive a couple of hours to get to the
hospital to which grandpa had been taken. And then we spent a long night,
basically waiting for grandpa to die. At some point in the evening, my
grandmother had a stroke. With everything else that was going on, we missed it.
And by the time we left to get some sleep, both of my grandparents were in the
hospital fighting for their lives. Grandpa passed away that night. Grandma
lived for almost another three decades, but on this night, as a result of her
stroke, she started to use a cane to move around. All of my grandparents are
now gone, but even though decades have passed, I still remember that horrible
night.
Another of my many favorite
stories in the Bible involves a man named Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was
Jonathan's son and the grandson of King Saul. On the day Saul and Jonathan were
killed in battle, Mephibosheth was a child in the care of the family's nurse.
With the death of the King and the heir apparent on the battlefield, as much as
the family might have been stuck in grief, some things needed to be done. And
one of those things was escape. The palace of the King would no longer be a
safe place for those who had once lived there. It was common for a new King to
come in and kill anyone connected with the previous King, and that especially applied
to family and close family servants. So, along with the grief that accompanied
the news that Saul and Jonathan had died, there was also a sense of panic and a
rush to get away to some far-flung hiding spot.
In the process of the escape,
Mephibosheth was dropped. It seems likely that his legs were broken and there
was no time or expertise to set the bones properly. Therefore, Mephibosheth was
lame in both feet for the rest of his life. Due to his status as a descendant
of King Saul, those around Mephibosheth took great pains to hide him from David.
Many believed that it was only because of this effort that Mephibosheth lived
to become an adult and even have a son of his own.
But one day, David asked
about Jonathan's son and discovered he was still alive. I am sure most believed
that the new King had finally decided to kill the last of Saul's descendants. However,
that wasn't David's motivation. His motivation returned to the promise David
had made to his friend Jonathan on a horrible day in the new King's past. Jonathan
had pleaded with David never to cut off his
kindness to the prince's descendants. David sent for Mephibosheth to
come to him, and I am sure that Jonathan's son thought this was the last day of
his life.
When Mephibosheth son of
Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.
David
said, "Mephibosheth!"
"At
your service," he replied.
"Don't be afraid,"
David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of
your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to
your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table." (2 Samuel
9:6-7).
For David, it was a kindness
that he had promised to Jonathan and that he would keep in memory of his
friend.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Psalm 59
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