Jones: The cry of grief and love
By Lynn Jones
When I was a small boy, my grandmother had one of those little glass globes filled with water sitting on a shelf in her home. Inside the glass ball was a little man skating across a pond. The water was as clear as crystal, but there was snow lying on the pond all around him. When I would pick up the ball and give it a good shake, the snow would come swirling around the little man and almost obscure him from my vision.
That little scene is a microcosm of our world. Everything can be fair and settled, when suddenly our whole world is shaken. Suddenly we are caught in a swirling storm. Visibility is almost zero. We can hardly find our way.
That’s the way it was for King David in the Bible. His son Absalom had rebelled against him. David told his soldiers to put down the rebellion but make sure that nothing happened to Absalom. His army disobeyed David’s instruction and killed Absalom. When David received that news, he was crushed and cried out, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for you, O Absalom, my son, my son” (2 Sam. 18:33).
There is an old nursery rhyme that says, “Hark, hark, the dogs do bark./The beggars are coming to town./Some in rags, and some in tags,/And some in velvet gowns.” Beggars in velvet gowns? Exactly! Everyone, including some in velvet gowns, come with their overwhelming needs. Grief and pain are no respecters of a person.
David’s cry was the cry of grief and love. Despite Absalom’s rebellion against him, David still loved him and would have been willing to die in his place. While that is a powerful expression of love, did you know that this father’s love for his son is but a pale comparison to the love our heavenly Father has for us?
We have all rebelled against Him. We keep on rejecting Him as King of our lives. We want to sit upon the throne ourselves.
David wished that he could have died in Absalom’s place. Of course he couldn’t. But after all our rebellion and sin against God, our loving heavenly Father chose to have One die in our place. He sent His Son to the cross to die for us.
At the end of every year, accountants try to get all the books balanced. They put it all together on what they call a “Balance Sheet.” If it doesn’t balance, it causes great tension and worry. God’s bookkeeping would be the despair of a good accountant. It is all so disorderly. It never ends in a neat balance. He totals the whole matter up in our lives and sees how hopelessly it is out of balance. And then to make it balance, He dies in our place. What astounding love!
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.
