Fetching Arrows To The Glory of God

Few of the activities of my daily life seem as though they are of much consequence in the building up of Christ’s kingdom. Daily I make food and clean up afterward. I bring in the mail. I might shop, do laundry, or get my oil changed. I feed my fish. I sit at my computer and try to string words together. If the spirit moves, I vacuum or dust. It seems it’s been awhile, however, since that particular spirit moved.

Daily I do common, ordinary things.

Sunday’s sermon focused on an episode in the life of David which was anything but common or ordinary. The sermon focused on the unlikely friendship between David and Jonathan, the sovereign one and his servant. David, the one anointed to rule over Israel, felt threatened by Saul, Jonathan's father and Israel’s reigning king. After hearing Saul's murderous threats, Jonathan helped his friend escape by means of a warning system involving the shooting of arrows into a field. Jonathan warned David, the future king fled, and the kingdom was preserved.

It was a good sermon.

As I sat listening in my padded pew, I kept returning to these words from the morning’s scripture reading:

In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him a little boy. And he said to his boy, "Run and find the arrows that I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, "Is not the arrow beyond you?" And Jonathan called after the boy, "Hurry! Be quick! Do not stay!" So Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. I Samuel 20:35-39, ESV

When the life of Israel’s future king was threatened and the kingdom itself was in jeopardy, there was a little boy. Scripture does not record his name. I can't tell from the passage whether he was Jonathan’s son, or merely the boy whose regular duty it was to retrieve arrows.

The boy was present. He did as he was told. At a critical time in the history of the kingdom, David’s life was spared. And the little boy who played an active role in this drama knew nothing of the matter.

I wonder if, when we get to heaven, we might find we had the privilege of carrying out similar small acts of obedience and duty. Perhaps we’ll find that seemingly insignificant acts we performed came at critical moments when the kingdom was threatened; even though, at the time, we knew nothing of the matter.

You just never know.

Linking with Michelle @ Graceful:

And with Jen and the Sisterhood: