Spilled milk and creative reconciliation...

It’s been a while since I wrote a post from my daily reading in the Old Testament books of Samuel. (In fact, I’ve finished Samuel now and have begun reading in the historical books of Israel’s kings.) But here’s just one more thought from 2nd Samuel and a little verse that caught my attention in chapter fourteen. 2 Samuel 14: 14 says: Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead He devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from Him.

This verse spoke so much to me of God’s heart for the lost. It’s a picture of how He pulls out all the stops to make it possible for selfish and sinful people to be reconciled with Him. And when it comes to “devising ways” to make that possible, surely there was no more precious and costly way than sending His own Son to die for us - a costly sacrifice that we’ll remember when we celebrate Easter later this month. But there are two important principles in this verse that can also be applied to reconciliation between two human beings:

Number one is the principle of “spilled milk.” 
Sometimes real restitution is going to be impossible. Restitution is an important Biblical principle, clearly taught and demonstrated in both the Old and New Testaments. If you steal from someone, you need to pay back what was taken, and maybe more. If your gossip publicly destroys someone’s reputation, a public apology would begin the process of putting things right. But like the examples in this story in 2 Samuel 14 (where one son had killed his brother), there are going to be situations that are “like water spilled on the ground”: the damage done can simply never be undone, never be reversed in any way. The drunk driver can’t bring back the loved one that was killed; the betrayal or infidelity of a friend or spouse can never be erased. Unlike the old proverb, crying over spilt milk is an appropriate thing to do: grieving losses is an important part of our healing. Recognising, however, that no restitution can ever be possible can help move us towards the next step in these principles of reconciliation.

Number two is the principle of “devising ways."
It was totally impossible for man to find ways of atoning for his own sin. It simply couldn’t be done. And so God devised different ways of making relationship possible again: the serpent in the wilderness, the laws about the scapegoat, the sacrifice of animals... and ultimately the death of His own Son. If someone is estranged from us, and if we know that they have no way of putting things right, we need to consider what we can do from our side to make reconciliation possibe, so that the relationship is not broken forever.

What situations of “water spilled on the ground” have there been in your life? And what can you do, even this month, to devise creative ways of making reconciliation and relationship possible again?