2 Samuel 18:33Then the king was deeply
moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, he
said thus: "O my son Absalom--my son, my son Absalom--if only I had died
in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!"
Note: Like the misery
of losing the infant son who was the first child of David and Bathsheba, (2
Samuel 12:23) now David mourns over a son who hated him, plotted against him
for years and sought to overthrow him and have him killed. How many parents long for and dearly love a
grown child who does not love them back?
I remember a couple, now long gone, who endured the conversation with a
son who announced he was going to see America on his motorcycle, and he was
never coming home. I know also of a
fellow minister, also long gone, whose wife and grown daughter abandoned him
and His God. The church became his only
family for the rest of his life. Family
can be the source of great joy or the source of great misery.
