Day 76 - August 30 - Our Hope

Allow me to recap part of the story of Abraham, for those who may not be familiar with it. The story is found in Genesis 17, 21, and 22, but in short, God promises that Abraham will be the father of a great nation, even though he's 99 years old and has no children except one, who, according to the promise, will not be the heir. The heir is yet to be born, even though Abraham's wife is 89 years old. The promise includes the statement that the son's name will be Isaac. Sure enough, a year or so later they have a baby boy, and name him Isaac. Then, sometime later, when Isaac is old enough to work and talk, God tests Abraham by telling him to go to a far place and sacrifice his son. Yipes! This is the kid that the promise was given about and through - how could he sacrifice his son? But Abraham packs up everything he needs, goes to the far place, loads the boy up with wood for the fire, takes the fire and the knife, and climbs a mountain. Isaac says "Uh, Dad? We've got wood and fire, but where's the lamb for the sacrifice?" Abraham's answer is "The Lord will provide the lamb". So they get to the top of the mountain, Abraham hunts up some rocks and builds an altar, puts the wood on top of it, and then throws his son up there and prepares to sacrifice him according to the Lord's direction, at which point the Angel of the Lord stops Abraham and proceeds to bless him for his obedience.

This doesn't have very much to do with my situation - I haven't been called to sacrifice my son, or anything like that. But I think it's significant that, having received the promise about Isaac, Abraham has enough faith to trust that God will provide - even if Abraham has to carry through with what he's been commanded to do. The book of Hebrews says that Abraham had so much faith that he was confident that God would raise Isaac from the dead if necessary in order to fulfill His word - that's how much faith Abraham had.

He had so much faith that God would be faithful to His promise that Abraham loaded up the family donkey with wood, fire, a knife and his precious son and took a multi-day journey, in spite of the fact that God had told him the purpose of the trip was to kill his boy. He knew two things in his knower, as it were - that God had promised big things through his son, and that God is true to His nature (which this test ran counter to). So Abraham had enough faith to make the preparations even though he suspected they would either be unnecessary, or that God would fix it some other way - because God has to stay true to His nature.

Let me clearly state that I am not Abraham, nor do I have such faith. So what's his story got to do with me, then? Just this - we are making the preparations to deal with Connor's treatment and rehabilitation, but that is not where our confidence lies. We are not content to accept the tiny improvement Man can offer - we fully expect God to render this unnecessary, and we want you to, as well. Our prayer continues to be not that He would prepare the way to the next step in rehab, but that He would heal Connor and set him upright on his own two feet.

Our prayer for you is that you will believe with us, trusting God and praying for the boy's complete restoration, and keeping sight of that in the midst of this parade of baby steps.

Thank you all for your faith and hope.

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