Tempory comment out this line

return View::make('user.edit')->with('user', $user);

And do a

print_r($user);

That will let you know if it's successfully getting through the query.
If no results here troubleshoot if $user_id is being passed to the method.
You could comment out everything in method and

echo $user_id;

If that echoes and the print_r shows a results, then double check your query.

Also here is a youtube video on editing a database record in laravel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0t6JIY707A

This may sound like a silly question, but is the name of your table user or users? That would be why the database query is failing (SQLSTATE[42S22]: Column not found: 1054 Unknown column 'users.id' in 'where clause' (SQL: select * from users where users.id = 2 limit 1)), what if you change your query to:

DB::table('user')->where('user_id', '=', $user_id)->first();

What does your User model look like, do you set the protected $table; property?

you guys are a life saver. The last solution worked as a magic.... Thank you so much juanpscotto...