I finished reading The Truth Teller last night. It’s powerful ending left me weeping and thinking how difficult it is to give up someone that you love.
It happens. Parents die. Children move away from home. Loved ones reject your love. Whatever form the loss takes, I thought how much easier it would be to never love at all. Then the pain would not happen.
This morning my devotional guide plunks me right into the story of Hannah and her strong desire for a child, not unlike the woman in Angela Hunt’s book. She prayed and God granted her a child, but before her son was born she’d vowed, “I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life.”
Hannah loved Samuel, but when he was weaned, she took him to the house of the Lord and “lent him to the Lord as long as he lives.” Then she and her husband “worshiped the Lord.”
Their sense of loss must have been huge, but the Bible reveals an incredible attitude as they gave their son into the hands of God. 1 Samuel 2 begins with her lengthy prayer of joy. She praised God for His salvation, uttered a warning to those who proudly resist Him, affirmed the Lord’s care for His people, and ended the prayer with an affirmation that God will judge the world, and “He will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed.” In the Old Testament, “His anointed” can refer to King David (not yet born), but more often to the promised Savior, the Messiah.
As I read this prayer, I can see how Hannah did it. Her deepest joy was in the Lord. Her focus was on truth and righteousness, and Him. She knew the salvation of God and His holiness. She knew the end of the wicked and the power of God to do right, and to take care of her. She also knew that nothing could thwart the plans of God. His anointed King would be powerful and eventually rule over all.
Yes, she loved her little boy, but she could see the bigger picture. God was in charge and she joyfully celebrated that she could entrust the life of this small child to her large God. He had created him and He would take care of him.
Hunt’s book and Hannah’s story plainly show that love cannot prevent loss. Even God knows that. He loves His own Son, yet sent Him to live among us and to die. God “so loves the world” also, meaning He loves every person that He created, every person ever born. That is a huge amount of love. But when He came to His own, He was despised and rejected. Even though His love is greater than Hannah’s, greater than any other love, He lost us. His love did not stop us from pushing Him away.
Of course, only His love can bring us back to Him. In love He “gave His only begotten Son” and “whosoever believes” are restored to an amazing love relationship with Him, a relationship where “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts. . . .” (Romans 5:5)
Every day I pray for the people close to my heart, and every day I realize that no matter how much I love them, I do not control their lives. Instead, I must place them into the hands of God, and like Hannah, lend them to Him for as long as they live. The sense of loss comes when I realize that I cannot, even by loving them, produce a willing acceptance of the love of God. That is between them and God. What I can do is pray like Hannah, knowing that nothing can thwart the plans of God, and asking that His anointed King be powerful and eventually, in love, rule their hearts.
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