Genesis 12 Reflections–Hopes and Dreams
It was 21 years today that I entered the most difficult promise I would ever make. I wish I could say it’s been easy, but that would be lie. Great things have happened for sure: eleven healthy and for the most part happy kids, a deep faith life with vocations coming out my ears, a wife that has gone from Gomer to reflect the beauty of the Virgin. But it has come at a price. The price of my self-love to die, the price of wanting life my way.
So in my reflections on the scripture we are dealing with a promise, a promise with a price. A promise that this old man Abraham would not even see in His living years.
“Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.”
Get this, he’s an old man, the God of Gods calls him in the night watch to get moving. To where? To what? What kind of faith must have driven this man of the desert to places unknown.
What of us? Has God ever whispered to you in the night watch, “Go!” I’ve heard that same voice, wondering if I was going mad, to quit my job and minister on the streets. That same voice telling me to preach on the streets the mystery of Christ. That voice telling me to trust God with the number of babies He gives me. That voice telling me to become Catholic. That voice telling me the Eucharist is His flesh and blood, that His Mother is to be greatly loved beyond all creatures. That voice that has made promises to me yet to be fulfilled. Shall I continue to believe after many years of a faded hope?
We are all little Abrahams, hoping against hope for the promises of God to be revealed here and beyond. What are the promises God has made to you that you have been afraid to believe, afraid to hope in? How many times have you waffled under the weight of dreams unfulfilled? Well be of good cheer friends, you are not alone. I charge you with this: hoping in the dark is a far better weight to bear, than simply casting off hope and sitting in the dark in your despair. Hope brings light in the dark, like the moon gives light to the night sky. Let hope hold you and you shall carry on, for we know who leads the way.
And what is promised to this man of hope? “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.”
Wow! Who could see the distant destiny of this man of faith, a chosen race to usher in the King of Kings, all from this word of promise that He dared believe. Thank you, Abraham! Look friend’s, God knows what He is doing in Abraham’s life and in yours. Things may not make sense, but you do not have the advantage of seeing the end from the beginning. Hope in the Lord. Hope in the promises He has made to you. In His time, in His way, all things shall come to pass.