“So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king's table. And he was lame in both his feet” (2 Samuel 9:13)  

This arrangement was because of the love between David and Jonathan, the father of Mephibosheth. David and Jonathan were kindred spirits. They saw each other with spiritual eyes, and made a covenant of love, for the day David would be king. “May the Lord be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever” (1 Samuel 20:42).

 After David was made king, he asked, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" He was told, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet”. People identified Mephibosheth by his deformity. He lived in a village called “Lo Debar”, which can be translated, “no thing”, a good place to hide oneself from the wrath of the new king. When he was brought to David, he asked, “What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?". He saw himself as worthless.

 If it weren’t for the covenant, Mephibosheth would be considered an enemy of David, but because of the covenant, David treated Jonathan’s son as if he were Jonathan himself. Mephibosheth wasn’t pleasant to look at, and probably wasn’t a sparkling conversationalist, but he had one thing that assured him a place at David’s table: when King David looked at him, he saw Jonathan. 

 If you’re born of the Holy Spirit, you’re the offspring of Christ, and this is why God loves you. Long before the foundation of the world, the Father and the Son made a covenant by which the offspring of Christ would be treated as if they were Christ Himself. “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6). 

Don’t let your past define you. Your deformity doesn’t rob you of any privileges. Stop using your deformity as an excuse for sin. God sees you as perfect, so stop hiding from God and take your rightful place at the King’s table. “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind” (Philippians 3:13-15).