I'm trying to be better about blogging in the moment, that is blogging at the time I think about it, rather than waiting and eventually forgetting to do it. So here's something I was thinking about today.
I've always been a little puzzled by Genesis 12. The chapter starts out this way:
"The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you."
That's all we get of the conversation. But surely there was something else. Surely, Abraham had some sense of who this God was who had the nerve to command him. After all, what person in their right mind would follow the command of God who they had no prior contact with? As I pondered what must have happened, it struck me: this God offered hope. A hope that no other god could.
Abram was 75 at this time. He knew that he was childless, and perhaps resigned himself to the fact that he would die that way. All his prayers to other gods, all his actions that he had tried over the years had been fruitless to change his life. They were met with only silence and tears.
And then he encountered the one true God. And this God promised him offspring. Which meant he had hope.
Abram met God, and something about this God was different from the other gods he must have tried. Something about his encounter with this God gave him hope that there would be offspring, that their would be a future for his family.
The best part is that God still offers hope. No matter what we've tried and failed to achieve, God holds out hope that the future is better. My prayer for you who are reading this is that you embrace that hope. It wasn't too late for Abram, and it is not too late for you.
I've always been a little puzzled by Genesis 12. The chapter starts out this way:
"The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you."
That's all we get of the conversation. But surely there was something else. Surely, Abraham had some sense of who this God was who had the nerve to command him. After all, what person in their right mind would follow the command of God who they had no prior contact with? As I pondered what must have happened, it struck me: this God offered hope. A hope that no other god could.
Abram was 75 at this time. He knew that he was childless, and perhaps resigned himself to the fact that he would die that way. All his prayers to other gods, all his actions that he had tried over the years had been fruitless to change his life. They were met with only silence and tears.
And then he encountered the one true God. And this God promised him offspring. Which meant he had hope.
Abram met God, and something about this God was different from the other gods he must have tried. Something about his encounter with this God gave him hope that there would be offspring, that their would be a future for his family.
The best part is that God still offers hope. No matter what we've tried and failed to achieve, God holds out hope that the future is better. My prayer for you who are reading this is that you embrace that hope. It wasn't too late for Abram, and it is not too late for you.
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