2 Samuel 7:2-17
This is the God I serve. The God who appreciates a King’s heart but doesn’t take him up on his generous offer. The God who had a bigger plan.
David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, but God told David’s cousin, Nathan, “Let David know I appreciate the thought, but I don’t need a house.” And yet, God was so pleased with David’s heart that He went beyond anything David would have ever dreamed, promising the King that the One who will reign forever will come from his lineage. David’s generosity moved Yahweh so much that He couldn’t help but lavish His blessings on the son whose heart was after His own.
As I read this account, I picture a five-year-old boy thinking his farmer dad could use a place to find rest. So, he fashions a little fort from bits of scrap wood he collected over the summer. In the boy’s eyes, it’s a palace. In his dad’s eyes, it is indeed a palace fashioned with something more precious than gold: love.
Scooping his son up, the dad rubs his boy’s head with a work-roughened hand, then sets him down. Taking him by the hand, he says, “Let’s go on an adventure, son. I want to show you all that I will give you one day, and one day, you’ll pass it down to your sons and your son’s sons.” The boy can’t contain his joy as he realizes he made his dad happy. As they stand at the top of a hill gazing down at the vista of his dad’s farm, the boy squeezes the hand of the one he wants to grow up to be like one day.
A hundred or so years later, another father walks along the broad path that once was a little trail through a wheat field and gestured out to the vast expanse. Ruffling his boy’s hair, he says. “Son, let me tell you how we got this land… and how you will carry this legacy to the next generation.”
This is the God I serve. The One who embraces the one who stands before Him even as He gazes on the generations that will follow—the God of legacy.
©2024 Katherine Walden