At morning prayer these days our scripture readings are
following the saga of Abram/Abraham. It’s such a familiar story that sometimes I
feel like there is nothing new to glean from it. Then, this morning, the
following line about Abram and Lot caught my attention: “…their possessions
were so great that they could not live together.”And how did Abram acquire all
these possessions? When he and Sarai fled into Egypt to escape famine, Abram
passed off Sarai as his sister rather than his wife. Because of her beauty Pharoah
took Sarai as his wife, and “Abram
fared well on her account, and he acquired sheep, oxen, male and female
servants, male and female donkeys, and camels.”
Abram let his desire for wealth imperil his relationships
with his closest family members. Somewhere in his transformation into our holy
father Abraham, however, he learned the wisdom expressed in Hebrews 13:5: “Keep
your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for
God has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
Clearly, Abraham’s story continues to offer new food for
meditation. This time, it has led me to the following question: What
transformation will I undergo when I learn to trust that God will never leave me
or forsake me, in spite of my faults and failings?
No comments:
Post a Comment