32. Two boys who decided to be brothers (1 Samuel 18-20)

1 Samuel 18:3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.

By defeating Goliath, David had saved the kingdom. And Saul wanted to pay him back for his heroic actions. And so Saul invited David to live in the palace. And David slept in the same room as Saul’s own children. And even though David was raised as a shepherd who ate bread and goat cheese and beans and slept on a dirty hillside under the stars, it didn’t take long before he felt right at home in the king’s castle with the king’s children.

He was getting used to eating fancy meals of steak and potatoes, twisty pasta with cream sauce, and cheese and crackers with cured meats for snack time. And every meal, there was a large pitcher of pomegranate juice set on the table. And if they drank the whole pitcher, a waiter simply refilled it. At night, David slept on the top bunk, and Saul’s oldest son, Jonathan, slept on the bunk below. And they talked, and shared stories, and joked until long after the…