The Happiest Day and the Bigger Blow

Monday Devotion

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Philippians 2:3–4

In the eighteenth century, a would-be assassin plunged a knife into the unsuspecting King Louis XV. Though the wound wasn’t mortal, doctors initially feared it was (and almost made it so, by—get this—bleeding a man who had already lost great quantities of blood).

The king of France assumed the worst. He called for his son and handed him the key to his writing desk.

“My son,” the king said, “this now concerns you. May you be happier than I was. I’m leaving you the kingdom at a very critical moment. I hope you’ll have enough insight to govern for the best.”

The king’s son took his father’s hands, kissed them, and mumbled in his grief and tears, “Would to God that I had received the blow!”

“That would have been far more painful for me!” the king replied.