Hide and Seek

There's just something thrilling about a chase. Great movie scripts are written about chases, like Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Bonnie & Clyde, or The Fugitive. That last one best fits the chase I got swept up in this afternoon: the chase between King Saul and David, son of Jesse. Our pastor, Steve, is beginning a sermon series on the Life of David next Sunday and as the communications/promotions guy at the church, I have been swept away by the creative process. Just today I played around with the idea of making an old-fashioned newspaper frontpage chronicling the David-Saul chase. "Fugitive Strikes Again!" the big, bold headline read. The story would come from 1 Samuel 26, in which Saul receives a tip about the whereabouts of his nemesis David. The king himself marches 3,ooo men into the wilderness to find the young fugitive only to come home humiliated. You see, David and company snuck into the king;s camp at night, stole his spear and water jug, then woke him up to wave it in his face. Or so I read it. "Why are you chasing me?!" David exclaims. It's a great question. He had done nothing wrong yet was hunted down by a jealous king. Saul shakes the sleep out of his eyes and replies in humility, "I'm so sorry, my son. You were right, I was wrong. You have spared my life. I will spare yours." Of course, history records that Saul continued his pursuit of young David and many more adventures awaited them. All of them thrilling. All of them suspenseful. All of them adding up to the greatest chase of them all.