Allow me to share with you a true and touching story from the lips of the recipient of a sweet act of unbridled compassion: When the supermarket clerk tallied up my groceries, I was $12.00 over what I had on me. I began to remove items from the bags, when another shopper handed me a $20.00 bill. ‘Please don’t put yourself out,’ I told him. ‘Let me tell you a story,’ he said. ‘My mother is in the hospital with cancer. I visit her every day and bring her flowers. I went this morning and she got mad at me for spending my money on more flowers. She demanded that I do something else with that money. So, here, please accept this. It is my mother’s flowers.‘ (L. Wagner)
A general definition of compassion is sympathy and concern for the sufferings of others and a desire to alleviate such suffering. Both the Hebrew and Greek words translated as compassion speak of having mercy or being moved with sympathetic pity. The word is used to describe God Himself. Let’s examine an act of compassion and learn from its example.
Israel would reach the zenith of its power during the reign of King David, described as “a man after God’s own heart.” When the previous monarch, King Saul, loses favor with God for his pride and disobedience, the shepherd boy David is secretly anointed by the prophet Samuel as Saul’s replacement. David quickly becomes a national hero for his giant-slaying skills; he is favored by the people and their God, and becomes the object of Saul’s raging jealousy. In a retaliatory frenzy, Saul attempts to snuff out David’s life, pursuing him constantly, placing David’s life in peril on a daily basis. But God’s will prevails, Saul and his sons succumb on the battlefield, and David takes the throne of Israel. It is then that the veil is pulled back on the depth of David’s character.
Kings were seldom concerned with the welfare of the disadvantaged or lowly and the heirs of former monarchs were generally killed in an effort to secure the new king’s reign. But Saul had a grandson, Mephibosheth, a young man who “was lame on his feet.” Out of a heart of compassion David took an unprecedented step, taking Mephibosheth, restoring to him “all the land of Saul,” and granting him the rare privilege of eating bread at David’s table “continually.” With no thought of publicity or payback, David demonstrated the heart of God to an enemy’s grandson.
How observant am I when it comes to compassion? How often do I commit to an act of kindness for someone that has no possibility of repaying that compassion? I serve a compassionate God. May His love and compassion flow through His child.
Matthew 25:40b Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Lord, please allow Your love and compassion to flow through me.