Scripture of the Day.  March 5, 2023

Genesis 12:1-4a

12:1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

12:2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

12:4a So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.

Reflection:

When we are raised by our parents, we inherit some or maybe many of their beliefs and values.  We don’t know what Abram learned from his parents and ancestors.  But when God called him, the instructions of his call were that he would have to leave his parents and relatives (except for his nephew Lot) and go far away from them, far away geographically and culturally and intellectually.  When God told Abram to “go” — God meant “GO.  Go from your kindred and your father’s house and their ideas and much of what you learned from them because I'm guiding you to a new place -- a new mind and heart and spirit.  GO!"  It must have been hard for Abram, at 75, to leave everything and head out for a place that was yet to be determined.

Where is Abram supposed to go?  Only  “to the land that I will show you.”  No name was given because that “land” didn’t exist yet.  This is our calling too.  God did not call any of us here to this life so we could become another version of our parents or anyone else.  Each of us has a particular gift to realize, to manifest.  We are called to leave “our country, our kindred, and our father’s house” to whatever the "land" God leads us to.  If we’re still breathing, we're not there yet.

“Behold,” says God, “I am doing a new thing…do you not perceive it?”  (Isaiah 43:18). Yes, and each of us is that new thing.  And different as we are, we share one thing with Abram: God calls us to "be a blessing.”  God’s blessing of love, mercy and forgiveness will flow through our lives.  Jesus was the blessing we are becoming.