“Do you want to see my scar?” My friend Bill had been paralyzed from the chest down after falling off a ladder years ago, and now he was in the hospital for a severe infection acquired during a surgery. As we discussed his new challenge, he lifted his blanket to show me the long incision made to treat his infection. “Does it hurt?” I asked. “I can’t feel it at all,” he said.
As soon as he said it, I felt convicted. During all the years I’d known him as a friend, I’d been unaware that his injury prevented both his mobility and ability to feel. I was embarrassed that I hadn’t had more empathy for him and his injury to better understand what he faced daily.
My lack of thoughtfulness about my friend reminds me of something King Hezekiah of Judah did. When the prophet Isaiah told him that everything in his palace would one day “be carried off to Babylon,” and his own descendants “taken away” (2 Kings 20:17-18), Hezekiah was pleased. “For he thought, ‘Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?’ ” (v. 19). Even though he was a good king, Hezekiah was focused more on himself than on what others would face.
How different God is. “This is love,” John wrote, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son” to save us (1 John 4:10). God cares so deeply for us that He suffered for us, so that we might live in His love forever.
What does God’s thoughtfulness mean to you? How might you think of others today?
Thank You for thinking of me, dear God. Please let Your love flow through me to others.
The Babylonian king sent envoys to Hezekiah seeking to forge an alliance with Judah against Assyria. In a foolish bid to impress them, Hezekiah showed them the wealth of his kingdom. God was testing Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:31). He had previously acted powerfully on Hezekiah’s behalf, but Hezekiah trusted in himself and the military alliance instead of God (see 2 Kings 19:35-36; 20:4-11; 2 Chronicles 32:25). Although Hezekiah repented (v. 26), he brought God’s judgment upon Judah. Later, Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people exiled to Babylon (2 Kings 20:16-19; Isaiah 39). Unlike Hezekiah, God provides the perfect example of loving others.
