The children are sitting quietly now, watching the video of Dad. Fernye continues her thought, “It says that before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, Elijah will come. And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.”
Cindy overhears what Fernye is saying. She smiles through her tears, “Look at them! The hearts of the children are certainly turned towards their Dad. Look how nice and quiet they are sitting.”
Shannon asks, “Why do you think they were jumping around so much before?” Shannon had her own ideas to share on how her brothers’ and sister’s jumping for joy reminded her of the natives’ newly found joy in Christ, but first she wants to hear what the others have to say.
Fernye speaks up first, “Let me tell you a story about King David.”
Shannon sits down with Mom, near Fernye. Perhaps she will not get to tell her point of view, after all. Everyone loves to hear Fernye tell a story.
Fernye waits until the video finishes and the children all eagerly gather around. Fernye frequently tells a story as she imagines it, not necessarily how it had been heard before, “Picture, David as a shepherd. David had a joy about him that touched people’s hearts, and that joy entered the king's palace as he played various instruments for them. But, where do you suppose he got that joy?”
Fernye didn’t leave much time for supposing, “David was a shepherd, remember. Have you ever seen a young lamb? Not all of them are this way, but if you’ve seen as many as I have seen born, you’ll be sure to see at least one of them running around and jumping all about, bursting with joy and delight. I imagine David, who cared for the sheep and defended the sheep, probably joined the young lamb, leaping with joy. I do believe that those who work hard and sacrifice, also have an increased level of joy. I believe this was true for David too. And I imagine he skipped, sang, and even played any number of musical tunes while dancing through the fields.”
Moriah adds her perspective, “So, David never lost the joy? He always kept his child-like dance within his heart?”
Fernye considers what Moriah is asking, “Well, he never lost it, though on a few occasions, he did move from the things that gave him joy.”
Rebekkah shares her living experience, “We can do the same thing too, if we’re not careful. We will never lose our joy, but we can leave it and even throw it away.”
Fernye continues her joy, “David left it at times, but he never threw it away. He never denied his God, the true joy-giver. Psalm fifty-one is a good one.”
Shannon asks, “Why do you suppose David left his joy?”
Fernye is happy to explain, “The same reason we leave it. He didn’t lose the joy, he just lost his focus. He had been given much more responsibility …and he was distracted. Sometimes we don’t want the responsibility, but freely accept the territory that goes with it. I’m not sure David wanted the responsibility or the territory, but God chose him. He was chosen while he was just a shepherd boy. But it was as a shepherd boy, that God gave him the faith. The faith to protect the flock from lion and bear, and later deliver the scared sheep from Goliath. Leading the flock, as King, brought on it’s own fears. But David had time to work out some of those fears before he led the nation.”
Moriah admits, “I know I would be afraid if someone came after me with a javelin.”
Fernye quickly points out, “But the effect of those fears carried on, into the years when David was king too. The very same shepherd boy who walked with God through peaceful pastures, became King. He was to learn, beyond fear, to respect and love God in a way that we are still today learning from.”
Shannon appears confused, “I didn’t know that David ever feared God. How did he fear God?”
Fernye, as always, finds this teaching, a story-telling delight, “King David initially would not let the ark of God to come unto him, because he had muddled his head.”
Josiah laughs loudly, “What’s a mud head?”
Fernye laughs along with him, “Not a mud head. More like a muddlehead, but not quite. David was not a muddlehead, he was a man of God. But when we allow our minds to drift away from God, our mind can become muddled. Muddled is, well, you have to break it down. There’s two words in muddled: mud and led. If you allow someone to lead you through the mud, several things happen. Now, you children might like the mud, but adults are too dignified, especially a King.”
This time it’s Leah’s turn, “What’s dignified? Does it have anything to do with digging?”
With children, it’s often difficult to get to the point of the story. She laughs, “No. Though some digging may give you a dis'-stink-'tion, but that’s a different story. Let’s stick with an adult being led into the mud. When an adult is covered with mud, it makes them feel undigni---, let’s just say, rather uncomfortable. They’re in a sticky situation and it begins to weigh them down. And if they try to clear their own vision, often they just get more mud in their eyes. They not only feel weighted down with their sticky situation, but they can no longer see straight and they become muddled.”
Josiah’s eyes get as big as his voice, “Can’t someone just help him wash the mud off!”
Fernye smiles at the simple child-like logic, “Well, it’s kind of sticky! But yes, Josiah, our Lord can wash us clean. And once David allowed that childhood joy, that closeness to the Lord, to return, ---the joy of the shepherd boy---, he began to dance with a song in his heart again, the songs of his youth. But he also carried a new song in his heart.”
Leah’s wide eyes bring satisfaction to a well-told story, “I can find all that in the Bible?”
Fernye doesn’t hesitate to admit, “Well, actually, no. And I don’t want you to think I’m adding to the Bible. That we shouldn’t do! I just want to add to the emotional feel of it.”
Cindy is well aware of that emotional feel and the songs of her youth. Cindy is about to speak, but it seems as though Fernye anticipates, clarifying her own point, “But that’s only if the song of your youth refers to the joy you felt, and the song in your heart as a new Christian. Like Jesus says in the Book of Matthew, Chapter eighteen, verse three: We are to be converted and become as little children. With the joy that we’ve seen in little Samuel here. Not the joy of a time that felt good in our youth while still within our rebellion and our worldly struggles.”
Rebekkah feels her emotions speak one more time, “Feeling too comfortable brings on its own problems too. David was overcome with the world’s temptations. He not only killed the enemy, but the spirit of himself …as Nathan put it so directly to him. As painful as it was to hear, God used that illustration to draw David back to Him.”
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