The reminder of the stars

I am on the ambitious mission to read through the Bible in a year. I am currently reading a lot about Abraham and the wild, "soap opera like" story of his life. And although there were moments of tremendous excitement, I have found that there is one theme that is a consistent thread in Abraham's narrative.

Waiting.

When we first meet Abraham, he is seventy five years old and childless. And God promises Abraham offspring. If Abraham is like me, he starts thinking about a nine month timeframe. Pregnancies last nine months, right? But nine months come and go. And then nine years. Eleven years later, his wife offers him a young Egyptian woman and they try to fulfill God's promise without God involved. Finally, after twenty-five years, a son is born to Abraham and Sarah. Twenty-five years.

I have wondered: what kept Abraham believing? When Sarah cried over her childlessness. When servants bore son after son after son. When their poorly planned plans failed. When God did not appear for years at a time.

I think that it was the ever present visual reminder of the promise that God made represented in the night sky. And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (Genesis 15:5) I think that every time Abraham's mind began to question if he had heard God right, the night sky served to remind him of the promise. If God could fill the darkness with a million points of light, surely he create a son for Abraham.

All of creation serves as visual proof of God's power and his nature. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. (Romans 1:20)

That's all I have to say about that.