There’s a biblical name that people don’t often give their children: Mephibosheth.  He was King Saul’s grandson (Jonathan’s son) who had been crippled as an infant (II Sam. 4.4).  In II Sam. 9, we read that King David showed amazing kindness to Mephibosheth.

Being in Saul’s family, Mephibosheth would have been considered an enemy and threat by any other eastern king.  Being crippled, Mephibosheth was helpless and, by human standards, unworthy of a king’s attention.  Yet David initiated an act of love and kindness, bringing Mephibosheth into his own family.

Doesn’t this remind you of the way that God treats us?  “While we were enemies,” while we were “helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” God “first loved us” and “predestined us for adoption as sons” (Rom. 5.10; Mt. 9.36; I Jn. 4.19; Eph. 1.5)!

What a heart-stirring picture of God’s love for us we read in David’s gracious kindness to Mephibosheth!