Grieving Over Our Children
I am convinced that one of the most difficult things in life is for a parent to have a child die. We all expect for our children to bury us, not for us to have to bury them. When it happens, the shock and grief take time to heal. The healing comes with the expression of great emotion and many cries to God for the comfort only He can supply.
David was feeling this grief when he received word that Absalom had been killed. The fact that his son had rebelled against him did not lessen the pain at all, but it probably added to it. The pain of a broken relationship was added to the pain of death. David could only cry out in his grief and spend some time alone with God.(II Samuel 18:33) His love for Absalom as so great that he wished that he could have died, instead of his son. That is a parent's love. That shows why David was called a man after God's own heart.
Jesus went to the cross for all of the rebellious children, for we all have sinned against God. On the way to the cross He wept over Jerusalem, because He had tried to gather His people under his wings like a mother hen, but they would not come to Him. While Jesus was hanging there, the sun went dark, as if to show the pain of the Father over His Son's death. However, it all happened because we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much that He did give His life for us. God became a man, so He could die in our place. That is God's heart. I believe He still grieves for every wayward child who dies without ever mending that broken relationship with Him by coming to Christ for forgiveness. O, how He loves us!
Tomorrow, I intend to read II Samuel 19-21.
David was feeling this grief when he received word that Absalom had been killed. The fact that his son had rebelled against him did not lessen the pain at all, but it probably added to it. The pain of a broken relationship was added to the pain of death. David could only cry out in his grief and spend some time alone with God.(II Samuel 18:33) His love for Absalom as so great that he wished that he could have died, instead of his son. That is a parent's love. That shows why David was called a man after God's own heart.
Jesus went to the cross for all of the rebellious children, for we all have sinned against God. On the way to the cross He wept over Jerusalem, because He had tried to gather His people under his wings like a mother hen, but they would not come to Him. While Jesus was hanging there, the sun went dark, as if to show the pain of the Father over His Son's death. However, it all happened because we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much that He did give His life for us. God became a man, so He could die in our place. That is God's heart. I believe He still grieves for every wayward child who dies without ever mending that broken relationship with Him by coming to Christ for forgiveness. O, how He loves us!
Tomorrow, I intend to read II Samuel 19-21.