Advent Day 6

Day 6: Isaac

The waiting, growing anticipation as the months go by. One by one.

Imagine Adam watching Eve’s belly growing bigger and bigger. The first parents. Imagine their joy as they cradled the first infant. They had never seen a child learn to crawl or walk. They, not long ago, had experienced creation for the first time, and now they were watching as their child saw the wonders with new innocence. They must have laughed with joy at the first time he called their names. Momma. Daddy.

Now imagine Abraham. He had seen infants. He had watched children playing. He had even raised a son. But he had longed for the one. He had longed for the one God promised. Who would bring the blessing. And now he had him. In his arms. That beautiful child. That tiny infant. One can only imagine the dreams he had for his son. As he looked into his tiny eyes, no doubt he saw reflected back at him a glorious life...now that the promise had come.  

Adam and Eve couldn’t see ahead to the time their beautiful baby boy would take a weapon and kill his brother. In the face of their child, they couldn’t yet see the pain that would come.

Abraham couldn’t foresee God asking of him what he did either,

And so, when God asked the unthinkable, it came as a knife in Abraham’s heart.

“Abraham!” God called.

“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”

2“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

The next morning, Abraham took his son by the hand...and obeyed.

Would we do the hard things if we knew about them long before they were going to happen? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that there is a reason. Maybe we aren’t strong enough yet. Maybe our light isn’t bright enough this side of heaven to see clearly enough the reasons for the suffering we and our children are going to endure.

For Abraham, God had another way. A ram who had gotten caught in the bushes. He asked, and Abraham obeyed. But God provided a way out.

Another Father would soon look into the face of His tiny baby. But this Father knew the suffering His son was going to endure. In fact, this Father sent His son to suffer. But this Father’s light was bright enough to see past the suffering. Past the heartache.

This Son was the ram in the bushes, who would save us all from death.