Yesterday with family celebrating the birthdays of our two youngest grandkids, we went to the Dallas World Aquarium and saw the most amazing things! Birds of all sizes and shapes so colorful and loud! We saw a huge blue fish with what could only be described as a topknot swirled above its head and he sat in stillness with only his eyes moving and observing us. We saw tiny colorful frogs that were highly poisonous and a huge manatee calmly eating under water from a bunch of celery stalks! There were fish and jellyfish that glowed beautiful light in the dark. Our grandsons favorite were the sharks! He keeps asking me which of two animals is the STRONGEST…and I can only say…Almighty God who created such life in all its complexity, design and beauty.

He cares unto Life. He created life as we know it. I am so grateful for the miracle of our Creator God.

He cares unto life that is good and so in 2 Samuel 12 we come to Nathan being sent by God to David. He tells him about two men. One is rich and the other is poor. One has a large number of sheep and cattle. One has one little ewe lamb, much loved. When the rich man has a visitor he doesn’t prepare the visitor food from his many sheep or cattle. He takes from the poor man the one little ewe lamb, v. 1-4. David was so incensed he insisted that rich man must pay four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity. v. 5-6.

“You are that man!” v. 7.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Psalm 51:1-12. David’s prayer to God.

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.” v. 13-14.

The child died 7 days later. His attendants were afraid to tell him because he was lying on the floor, fasting, praying. David knew. “Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” v. 23. David knew one day he would again see his child because He knew who his God is. He knew God’s love to correction for good for David and for each of us. We don’t have hope in this life only! We have God to help us always through everything.

Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah (Jedidiah means loved by the Lord). v. 24-25.

Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14.

David knew Who loved him. God’s love was not foolishness to David and he longed for the love and care God gave even to his correction for the sin he committed willfully. How can we love God and resist His correction in love for our good? It is God who created you. It is God who loves you. We need God’s truth. Allow His truth to have its work in you. Know Who God is and let the language of His truth do its love unto your life. Ask for His Spirit to guide you. He’s here.