For Better And Worse

For Better and Worse

Michal

Read: 1 Samuel 19:1-17

Natalie wiped the cereal from her husband’s chin and wondered if he would recognize her today. Sometimes she felt that Alzheimer’s had robbed her of her husband and of her own life as well. When was the last time she had slept all night or spent the day with girlfriends or . . . ? As she helped her husband into the recliner, her eyes fell on their wedding picture, taken thirty-six years earlier. Now I remember why I do this.

Michal’s feelings for David turned out to be more superficial than Natalie’s self-sacrificing love. When Saul sent men to kill David, Michal helped him escape through a window and told the soldiers that he was sick in bed. When Saul discovered her deception, she claimed that David had forced her to help him by threatening to kill her. Instead of reminding her father of David’s innocence, as her brother Jonathan had, Michal’s lie fueled the fire of Saul’s jealous rage. Immediately after saving David’s life, she endangered it. The way she handled the situation was in her own best interest, not David’s.

Some of us might have second thoughts about getting married if we could see into the future. Would we be willing to accept our husbands “for better or for worse” if we knew just how bad the worst could be? Our circumstances change and people change, not always for the better. That’s when we face the real test of love. Will we hold fast to our commitment to our spouses, always seeking their best interests above our own?

When God accepts us as his children, he does see the future. He knows that at times our devotion to him will cool and we’ll return to serving our own interests instead of his. He knows that our behavior will sometimes disappoint him. In contrast, his love for us never wavers. God displays the ultimate in self-sacrificing love.

[Love] is not self-seeking.

1 Corinthians 13:5 (NIV)