Day 8

The Call of Abram

from the reading plan


Genesis 11:1-32, Genesis 12:1-9, Psalm 2:1-12


“Do you think you’ll ever see him again?”

“Why don’t you track him down and go visit?”

“What would you do if he just showed up one day?”

These are some of the questions I hear whenever I tell people I haven’t seen my dad since I was five years old. And since I haven’t heard from him since I was seven, I’m not even sure whether he’s still alive.

I vividly remember my old man telling me he was moving back to his home country of Colombia, and I can still hear the timbre of his voice when he looked me in the eyes and made a promise: “I’ll come back.”

For every year that he didn’t return, my heart became more callous and my outlook more cynical. I told myself, “People break promises; trust no one.”

I wonder if Abraham, a man whose own father had died and whose wife was unable to conceive a child, was reluctant to trust what God was promising: “I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). How could a nomadic old man with no children and a fractured family leave a legacy of any kind? How could future generations benefit from this ostensibly anonymous and seemingly random man?

This passage highlights the uncertainty with which most people encounter the world. If God is even there at all, can He really be trusted? And if so, is it realistic to think He would do anything special with my inconsequential little life?

The Bible doesn’t appear to affirm that Abraham earned God’s favor as a pillar of the community, nor does it put him forth as paragon of piety to make him the obvious choice to receive this world-shaping, history-changing promise from God. Abraham’s introduction to the story illustrates the lavish love and unremitting mercy of God, not the talent or worthiness of Abraham.

Whether we’re reading it for the first or the hundredth time, the pages that follow reveal how God delivers on His promises to Abraham. And if we’re honestly looking at the evidence in our own lives, we can rest assured that the same God who was faithful to Abraham is equally trustworthy today.

I bear the name of an absent father, and I have no memory of being his son. Apart from the Lord, I would be exactly what my circumstances dictate: an orphan, cut off from history and incapable of establishing my own family legacy. But in the hands of the eternally faithful God—the God of Abraham too—my life is governed not by my family history but by the promises He has made: “You are my son; today I have become your father” (Psalm 2).

My Father in heaven keeps His promises, and I will live to share that Good News with as many people as I can.

Post Comments (0)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *