Lent
March 11, 2019

Scripture Reading: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.’ He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. –Genesis 15:1-6

At the beginning of my career, I was an adoption worker. I did home studies of couples applying to adopt and then oversaw any placements of children until the legal work was finalized. People adopt for many reasons from simply wanted an heir but having a medical diagnosis indicating that cannot happen to just loving children that might need a home. Adoption has changed a lot since I worked in it. There are now open adoptions where the adoptive parents maintain a relationship with the child’s biological family, cross-racial adoptions, and placement of older children in adoptive homes.

Abram longed for an offspring with his genetics. The culture in which he lived valued particularly having sons to carry on the family business as well as name. I doubt if he ever dreamed that his deep need to sire children would result in his becoming the father of three major religions. Can you image what he must of thought when God assures him that his descendants would be as numerous as the number of stars in the sky when he had not had one child yet?

Abram is recognized also as being one of the first to follow monotheism, the recognition that there is only one God. Abram trusted God and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. God works with us just as we are and longs for us to trust in God for who God was and is and will always be.

Prayer: Lord, grant us the courage to share our greatest desires with you while we trust you to weave our outcomes into your kingdom of love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.