Following on from the confusion of languages after the Tower of Babel, people were on the move, seeking out places to settle down. Abraham are part of that general movement when God unexpectedly chooses them to be part of his big rescue plan for the world, to reverse the devastating impact of evil.
Genesis 12:1-3 ‘Go to a land I will show you. I will make you (currently unable to have children) a great nation. I will bless the whole world through you.’ These are massive promises made to an ordinary couple. Up they get and go – no arranged itinerary, no pre-booked nights, no travel insurance – simply God’s promise. These ordinary people will go on to make plenty of mistakes. They will take wrong turns. They will do things that put those promises in jeopardy. But God never lets them go or withdraws from them. Many generations later, Jesus is born to their descendants, and we have the promise of forgiveness, the promise that our lives are never wasted, and that God uses everything about us, to bring out good.
There are times when we can’t see that, when we doubt that we are useful, when we can’t determine what we are meant to do. We are invited to draw on the strength of Abraham and Sarah, and to take the next step, and the one after, trusting that the Holy Spirit is guiding us.
