February 19

The king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew the kindness of God unto him? — 2 Sam 9:3

Remembering kindness is a mark of a noble mind.

True friendship never forgets. Yet it looks as if David had forgotten his friend for a good while. It was fifteen years after Jonathan died when David looked up this son of Saul. Meanwhile the lame boy had been getting along as best he could, over at Lodebar.

A good many more of us show the same tardiness in doing the kindnesses we owe to others. We delay until our return has lost half its meaning. Indeed some of us never get the return made at all. We wait till the friend is dead, and then we send flowers for his coffin.

Is there one to whom you are indebted, waiting now, somewhere, in the shadow, for you to come to show him the kindness of God? Is there a child of someone dead who befriended you at a time when kindness meant much to you, now needing a friend? Should you not repay to the living the debt you owe to the dead?