Scripture

Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”

Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”

Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud. Genesis 27:36-38

Observation
Yesterday I saw a mom who should have her mother card revoked. We were in the TSA security line at the airport. She was a young mom with two tender children. They were excited about flying on a plane. They had questions. They skipped with anticipation. But their eyes were dark and heavy. They were used to what spewed from her mouth. From the mother flowed a torrent of hurtful words designed to crumple the spirit of a child. She hurled words like,

Shut up!
What would you know!
Stupid.

The clincher was when she ran over the daughter’s shoe with the luggage cart. When he daughter complained she shrieked, “Well then get out of the way!”

I turned and prayed for the children and for her. I could only see pain ahead. I asked Jesus to intervene.

Words have power. If it is possible to hurt so deeply then the inverse must be true that the right words to a child can create wonderful things. As parents, we have the power to bless. The hearts of our children long for blessing. Like Esau, they silently ask, “Bless me too!”

Children never outgrow their need of our words of blessing. My mom didn’t finish high school until she was well into her 40s. I still remember her dialing the black rotary dial wall phone to tell her mother the news. She wanted blessing.

Application
My kids want my blessing too. My youngest is 19. Just before he left home in October, I took him out for a special meal at the Texas Roadhouse. Over slabs of bovine, I presented him with the Bible that he had picked out and spoke words of favor over his future. Even with what I did, there is a part of me that would like to do yet even more for him. At my daughter’s wedding I crafted a special speech to bestow honor on she and her husband. For my foster sons, the night before their wedding, I took each to a beach house, cooked a big breakfast and prayed a deep prayer over them. And yet there is more.

Prayer
Father, I want to be a man who blesses well. Help me to identify times when I need to call my children to myself and to speak words of favor over their lives. And may the merits of Christ magnify my words for eternal impact in them. Amen.

Scripture
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Genesis 22:12

Observation
Why did God ask Abraham to come to the brink of human sacrifice? There is God’s obvious desire to test his heart to see if he loved the Lord more than the gift of a child he had given. But why such an extreme process to teach him?

I’m wondering just now, could it be that the heavenly Father wanted to deposit into the heart of the father of many nations a lesson for this life but also for the next?

First and foremost, God was developing with Abraham friendship. (James 2:23). This experience was a way their friendship would be deeper, for they would both share the pain of losing a son. But friendship with God is not just for this life, but for eternity. God’s view of friendship is looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong term.

Jesus would later say, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56) More happened that day than we are told in Genesis. Abraham was standing on the top of the mountain that would one day become the site of the Temple and its sacrifices. Off in the distance, perhaps God pointed to another hill and showed Abraham the knoll that would become Calvary. He saw Jesus, his life and his death and his resurrection and was glad.

Jesus would also say later, that Abraham had a job after his death that was even greater than what he did while he was alive. In the waiting time, before Christ came, those who died with faith in God did not go to heaven as there was yet no way because Christ had not yet come. All the dead went to the place of the dead. But in that holding cell for judgement, God carved out a hospitable zone for those who believed in him called “the bosom of Abraham” (Luke 16:23). To our ears it makes more sense to call it “Abraham’s embrace.” There a beggar named Lazarus would find comfort in the presence of father Abraham, while he waited with all of the rest for the coming of Jesus.

How could Abraham console those waiting for Christ? He could give hope even in the place of the dead because Abraham knew God’s plan to give his son and he could feel in his heart what that plan would mean.

So here is my wild thought: God took Abraham through a gut-wrenching scenario not just for this life but also for the next. God was developing with Abraham a friendship not just for this earthly existence but for the forever of heaven too.

Application
Jesus has called us his friends if we obey him. That friendship is not just for today but for forever. There are things Jesus is allowing to come into our lives that do not make sense in this life, because they are designed for the life to come.

We will be dead far longer than we are alive. I read yesterday from Dallas Willard that we should be thinking what our life will be like 300 years from now and not just 5 years or so. We will reign with Christ and he will have works for us to do. Most of all, he is creating with us an eternal friendship. Today he invests into experiences that will create a forever love between us. Abraham would be the friend God would have in the agony of losing his own Son. Our present suffering has then an eternal meaning. Not all things make sense in this life, because the lessons learned aren’t for this life, they are for the next.

Prayer
Father, today I am humbled that you would call me friend and I’m staggered to think that you are creating experiences today that will deepen our relationship for all eternity. You have given to me some precious friends in life. From time to time, I’ve deliberately arranged for trips, events, adventures and more for no other reason than to deepen our friendship. If I, as an imperfect friend, have done such things, how much more will you with me…and us. I think of scattered moments in my life that I’m still scratching my head over to try and figure out why they happened. But as I read Abraham’s story, I know that your view of friendship is much longer than mine. You want with me such a rich friendship that you purposefully invest into me today experiences that will last with us both forever. I receive your friendship and embrace it closer. I love you Friend! Amen.

Scripture
So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. Genesis 16:2

Observation
It amazes me that Abraham built a quality friendship with God without a Bible to read. He had no Psalms to turn to, no role models to ponder, and no weighty theology from Paul to guide him. All he had with a journey, experiences and God. With this in mind, I find it amazing not that he blundered, but that he made so few mistakes in his growing friendship with God.

Yet Abraham made some colossal bad choices. He passed off his wife as his sister and he took his Sarah’s advice and had a child by her chief maid. Ouch. Those decisions cost him. Today, the strife in the Middle East can find its roots in this poor choice. Yet it was through these mistakes that Abraham learned to be God’s friend.

Over time, Abraham learned not to make decisions alone, but only in friendship. There were silent times, when God didn’t pop up as frequently. In those seasons, the voices of others became louder. Culture told him that it was acceptable to start a lineage through a slave. Sarah was chiming in too. It all seemed reasonable…without friendship.

Application
I want to come to a point in my relationship with the Lord, that I seek his counsel not with a hidden irritation that God is interfering, but in an excitement to plan together with my heavenly Friend the course of our life together. I want to live a life in consultation, not just to make good choices, but because I want a better friendship with God. Yes I do have the Bible to turn to, but if my Bible were taken away, what truth remains inside of me? That truth will marinate inside of me only if I seek my Friend in everything.

Prayer
Father, before I thought of friendship with you, you have been anticipating friendship with me. You never gave up on your friend Abraham. You returned to him even when he did not turn to you. What a Friend you are. I turn to you now as one just beginning to explore friendship together. I turn to you not because I want to make right choices that will bring me and others joy. I come to you because first and foremost I want to have friendship with you. Today we relate through the fog, through shadows, through symbols. But one day the voice I hear on the other side of the wall of eternity will become a face to behold and eyes to gaze into. I’m anticipating seeing you for eternity, so today I live with the reality that you are all around me. I don’t need to seek your presence. It is present with me. Your kingdom is all around me. I let it enter into me. Please expand our friendship together with Christ. Amen.

Press arrow to listen to Glenn Packiam sing “Burning in Me”

Scripture
After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. Genesis 8:6-12

Observation
I would have opened the door of the ark a lot sooner than Noah. After being cooped up for one year in a floating barn with seasick animals, I would have been wanting to open the door to get some air. Imagine the stench! Noah lived up to his name and was patient as a man of peace. He conducted a series of scientific experiments and did not make a move until all the data were in.

There is much to learn from a 600 year old man about patience. When the ark skidded across land all eyes were probably fixed on the front door wanting it to open. But Noah waited carefully until conditions were just right. He had bevies, herds, prides, hives, rockeries, colonies, litters, gaggles, teams, packs, and cohorts of animals to think of. Once the door was opened there would be no putting the animals back inside. He had just one chance to get the timing right. So Noah waited until the perfect moment.

His waiting combined his own research along with his discernment of the voice of God. There was tolerance from the Lord for Noah to undertake his own investigations and there was prudence in Noah to wait until God had the last word.

Application
There are many times in life that my ark scrapes onto land and I pace to get out. But there is process to be considered. It would be a pity to survive the disaster only to watch all the animals sink into the mud or die of starvation because nothing had yet grown to feed them.

Prayer
Father, teach me patience and prudence like Noah. He lived like a man mindful of all who were on the boat. Help me to make my decisions mindful of all the passengers who are with me and open the door only when you say so. Amen.