I Samuel 25:36-38
“When Abigail got home she found Nabal presiding over a huge banquet. He was in high spirits—and very, very drunk. So she didn’t tell him anything of what she’d done until morning. But in the morning, after Nabal had sobered up, she told him the whole story. Right then and there he had a heart attack and fell into a coma. About ten days later GOD finished him off and he died.”
“When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so she didn’t tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day. In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. As a result he had a stroke, and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone. About ten days later, the Lord struck him and he died.”
With these verses we get a peek into Abagail’s life and God shows us she is not just someone incidental to David’s story. She was likely just past puberty when married to the abusive man Nabal. When she met David, she had somehow become a mature, graceful, and wise woman, testimony of God’s ministry to her heart. After the experience of David’s charisma, her return to the consequences of her actions must have been disheartening. Whatever she expected as she stood before her husband, it probably wasn’t this kind of deliverance. God’s plan for Abigail took an unexpected turn and, within a couple of days, she found herself in a new life for which she’d been well prepared. That preparation occurred during the struggle to please God in one ordinary day after another in difficult circumstances. Do not distain the ordinary. It is God’s classroom for us. While our life may not be as newsworthy as Abagail’s, it is just as important. God is a good parent who hovers over each of his children because each one is precious to him.
Lord, how can it be that I am worth your attention? You are lord of the galaxies, grand beyond imagining. Yet you call me by name and care about my little problems. As a mother looms large in her infants life, so you fill up mine. You and you only nourish and preserve me. I love you.