In
Luke 9:38, we read of a poor distracted father who had brought his son
possessed with an unclean spirit to the disciples, but they could not cast it
out. It was a most terrible case, and in his anguish the father cries: “Master,
I beseech Thee, look upon my son: for he is my only-begotten!” It is not by
accident the Spirit uses this touching word in these three lovely stories:
rather is it to prepare our hearts, that we may more deeply enter into what it
meant for God to give his only-begotten Son for you and for me. May we learn
the lesson in part at least: never will we know it all: but these three cases
should teach us something of what is cost the Father to redeem us poor lost
sinners. The father in the story before us did not have much faith, but the
Lord rebukes the unclean spirit, and it came out, and He delivered him again to
his father. In each case He gave the child back to the parent: though indeed He
might have claimed them: but it is “He who has fashioned a mother’s heart and
furnished it all with love.”
And
He knows and understands and cases as none other can, even the nearest and the
dearest. And let us ever remember, His sympathy today in our sorrows with our
children, is just as real and true as it was long ago.
In
sickness or in health, in life or in death, the best thing we can do with our
children, is to commit them to our Lord Jesus Christ.