The Boy King Who Asked for Wisdom Instead of Gold

Do you know what it feels like to be handed something far too big for you?

Solomon did.

His father, King David, was gone now. David the shepherd king, who had once sung in the fields about the Lord who walked him through the dark valley. And the heavy gold crown that had rested on David's head came down to rest on Solomon. Young Solomon. Who still felt like a boy on the inside.

All around him stretched a whole kingdom of people. God's people. Thousands and thousands of them, each one with a name, each one needing a king who knew what to do.

And Solomon did not know what to do.

He felt small. He felt unready. Maybe you know that feeling too, when something important is waiting, and everyone is looking at you, and inside you are thinking, "But I am too little for this."

That is exactly where Solomon was.

Then, one night, God came to him in a dream, near as breath.

"Ask," God said. "Ask me for anything you want, and I will give it to you."

Anything! Think of it. Solomon could have asked for mountains of gold. For a long, long life. For all his enemies to fall down before him. A young heart might have grabbed at any of those.

Instead, Solomon said this:

"I am only a child. I do not know the way. And here I am with all these people, your people, too many to count. Please. Give me a listening heart. So I can tell right from wrong, and care for them well."

Everything he asked for was for loving the people God had given him.

And God was so glad.

"Because you asked for this," God said, "and not for riches, not for long life, not to win, I will give you a wise and listening heart. There will be no one like you. And I will give you the other things too. The ones you did not even ask for."

So Solomon became wise. The wisest king there had ever been. People came from far away just to listen to him.

But a seed lay hidden in this story, waiting under the soil.

Even Solomon, the wisest of all, grew old. And even Solomon, later on, got things wrong. His listening heart could not stay perfect. The people still needed a King who would never, ever stop loving them well.

God was already sending that King.

One day a different King would walk among God's people. And he would not need to ask for wisdom in a dream, because he WAS wisdom. He was the wisdom that made the stars. He looked out at the crowds, all those people too many to count, and his heart did not shrink back. He gathered them close. He knew every single name.

Jesus. Greater than Solomon. The King who never gets it wrong, who never grows old, who never loses even one.

So if today you feel too young, too small, too unready for what is being asked of you, take heart. You do not have to be wise enough all by yourself. There is already a King with a perfect, listening heart. And he is holding you.