Life can sometimes feel like spilled water — messy, irreversible, beyond fixing. There are days when we carry the weight of mistakes we can’t undo or words we wish we could take back. Like water soaking into the ground, those moments seem lost forever.

David certainly had one of those moments. His family is in turmoil after a series of events; David is mourning the loss of a son, and he is needing to reconcile with another son who is estranged. David is visited by a wise woman, and her advice to David is an encouragement to us all.

“Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him” (2 Samuel 14:14).

God’s heart is not to leave us in our brokenness.
He devises ways — not half-hearted attempts, but intentional plans — to bring us back to Him. His nature is not to abandon, but to restore. Even when we feel banished by guilt, shame, or regret, God is actively working to open the door for our return.

This verse reminds us that while our past may be out of our hands, our future is not. God invites us, even now, into grace, into hope, into new life with Him.