Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:
She looked after the king and took care of him.
1 Kings 1:4

Chosen for her youth and beauty, Abishag found
herself one day the live-in nurse of the great but
old King David. Her job was to keep the king warm.
Within months her patient died. We know little
about their relationship except that they never had
sexual intercourse. She offered David uncomplicated
companionship and human closeness without
agenda in his last days. Little did she know how
complicated her own life would soon become.

Almost immediately after David's death, Abishag
became the bargaining chip in a power struggle
between the king's son Solomon and widow Bathsheba,
and another son of David, Adonijah. For Adonijah,
Abishag was probably little more than a possible
leverage point to renew his claim on the throne of David.
Bathsheba, herself acquainted with being treated as an
pawn, may have been trying to do Abishag a favor as
well as to pacify Adonijah. Her ultimate agenda, though,
was to protect her son, Solomon. Solomon gave his
half brother no room for doubt. He assumed Adonijah
was planning to use Abishag to fight for the throne.
These maneuvers make one fact clear: No one cared
what Abishag thought. She might as well have been
listed with the furniture.

Home and work are both settings in which people are
sometimes treated as objects. You may bear the
emotional scars of past encounters with people who
devalued and abused you. You may be hurt today by
such treatment. Family members may withhold
appreciation. Fellow workers may treat you like just
another office machine. Resist these invitations to
hopelessness or resentment by remembering that God
knows. He knows you intimately, and he will always
treat you as a person of value.

OTHER PEOPLE MAY OVERLOOK US, BUT GOD
NEVER DOES!

(from More To Life weekly devotion)