God’s kindness

I’ve read through the Bible more than a few times, and I’ve probably read or heard this story dozens of times in my life. But today, I saw something for the first time. 

In verse 3, David says,

Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?

The key phrase here is “God’s kindness.” 

David didn’t just say, “Is there anyone from Saul’s family that I can show kindness to?” 

He said, “Who can I show God’s kindness too?”

As I look at that, I can’t help but think that David looked back at God’s kindness in his own life.  That though he had been a poor shepherd boy, the youngest in his family, a nobody, still God singled him out to bless him. 

Because of that, David wanted to do the same for someone from Saul’s family, for Jonathan’s sake.

Here was Mephibosheth, descendant of Saul, someone that David could’ve considered a threat to the throne. 

Here was Mephibosheth, crippled after an accident when he was a boy, brought before David, probably thinking he was going to die.

And David showed God’s kindness to him, not only letting him live, but restoring his grandfather’s land to him, and having him eat at the king’s table for the rest of his life.

What is God’s kindness?  God’s kindness gives us what we don’t deserve. 

We don’t deserve salvation.   We don’t deserve any gift God gives us.  And yet he gives these things to us anyway.  That’s grace. 

We deserve punishment for our sin.  We deserve death.  Yet God forgives us.  He doesn’t give us what we do deserve.  That’s mercy.  That’s God’s kindness.

Do you show God’s kindness to the people around you?  Just as you have received mercy and grace from God, do you show these things to your family, to your neighbors, to your coworkers, to the people around you?

Let us be like David, seeking to show God’s love and kindness, making a difference in a world that desperately needs him.