Since you, Lord of Armies, God of Israel, have revealed this to your servant when you said, “I will build a house for you.” Therefore, your servant has found the courage to pray this prayer to you. Lord God, you are God; your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now, please bless your servant’s house so that it will continue before you forever. For you, Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing your servant’s house will be blessed forever. ~2 Samuel 7:27–29
Many little girls love to play house. Occasionally, they may successfully rope an unsuspecting boy into the game to be the husband, daddy, or—perish the thought—a baby brother, but girls seem more genetically drawn to this particular game than boys.
Although I don’t remember ever being victimized by having to participate in playing house, I do remember my own secret adaptation of the game. When you were younger, maybe you played this one, too.
There was a swing set behind my parents’ house. It was the deluxe model with three swings and a “sky glider.” An incredibly frugal man, my dad must have been overwhelmingly inspired to invest in the above-average edition. In any case, on warm summer nights, sometimes I would slip out of the house and sit on one of the swings. A fairly quiet boy, I rarely disclosed this kind of stuff to anyone, but all alone under a crystal night sky, I’d rock back and forth on the chain-suspended wooden swing seat and dream about the future.
For so many years, girls were otherworldly to me. I had an older sister and a younger sister and deeply loved both of them. But they were my sisters. They weren’t really girls—not like the mysterious and many times unapproachable ones at school. Sitting on the old swing set, I wondered if there was a girl out there for me. I thought about what it would be like to live with—sleep with and have babies with—this girl. Such thoughts made a boy’s heartbeat almost audible to an ordinarily inanimate swing set on a summer night.
A family of my very own? I could hardly allow myself to dream such a dream. Did this ever happen to you?
But, if you’re married and have children, here we are, you and me, decades later. And as incredible as our dreams seemed at the time, they have come true. You and I have families of our own. Can you believe it?
The prophet, Nathan, had a message from God for David: “The Lord declares to you: The Lord himself will make a house for you” (v. 11). It was as though God was saying to David, “I’m going to find a gift for the ‘king who has everything.’ It will be- come your most precious possession.” And God also has a message for us: our families are one of God’s most incredible gifts. Imagine that. Our dreams have come true.
Completely overwhelmed by God’s covenant, Completely overwhelmed by God’s covenant, David rejoiced in God’s promises, asking God to bless the house he would build through David’s family.
If you’re a dad, this moment could be one of the most important you have ever known. Please focus on the following words as though your life depended on them. Your family is one of God’s most spectacular gifts to you. Before the inauguration of time itself, He chose you to be a dad. Not every man gets this privilege, but you do. You have a family of your own, the fulfillment of a dream you barely had the courage to dream.
Now’s your chance to thank God for how he is working in your family.