“And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household."
2 Samuel 6:11
After being carried from Silo to the battlefield at Eben Ezer, the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines and was quickly returned for the death it caused among them. But also in Israel it caused a great death when they dared to look inside it. Finally, it stayed at Abinadab's house in Quiriat-jearim for 20 years. When David asked for it to be moved to Jerusalem, Uzza died for daring to touch it, so David ordered to leave it at the home of the Levite, Obed-Edom.
The Ark of the Covenant had been in many different places. However, only in one place do we see that there was a blessing for a particular family and even for their indirect relatives; the house of Obed-Edom. What was in the atmosphere of that house that was not in Abinadab's? I would love to be able to go back in time and see how that man behaved, how much joy there was in that house, what the talks were like at lunchtime, how they taught their children to worship God.
The word clearly teaches us that there is blessing where there is unity. Where there is unity is where God sends blessing (Psalm 133:1-3). So, if there is one thing I am sure of, it is that if the presence of God manifested itself there, it means that there were no divisions in that house; that means that there were no distant hearts.
They were not perfect, but there were no walls between them. In love, all conflicts were resolved. The prophet Malachi warned us that horrible days would come to families if the hearts of the parents did not turn to the hearts of the children and if the hearts of the children did not return to the hearts of the parents (Malachi 4:6).
God does not seek perfect families, but He does seek families that keep their hearts together. It is interesting that Malachi says that first, the hearts of the parents would return to the children and then the hearts of the children to the parents. Sometimes we, as parents, have raised barriers first. We are disappointed in our children because they do not meet our expectations, we delude ourselves into thinking that they are the ones who got away from us, when we have been the ones who have filled our houses with walls. Will God feel comfortable in a house full of walls? I think the answer is clear. We cannot pretend to have family worship and prayer when there are walls which will not allow His presence to be manifested.
Go and be reconciled to your child. If necessary, ask them for forgiveness, humble yourself, hug them. Their hearts groan for real unity. Accept them as they are, not as they should be, because nobody is as they should be.
Make God feel comfortable in your house!