A Father's love.......

9When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." 12He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." Genesis 22

If there is one thing this last year has taught me it is this, faith is imparted. Among many other little things, that I may know some about but have not mastered, lol, trusting the Father with our children is a very intense, sometimes heartwrenching but it always has a rewarding outcome. We usually don't always equate the outcome as being rewarding when the chips don't fall the way we would particularly like them to fall.

It is amazing how when God gives you faith to believe something, He may not give you all of the specifics but in you "inner man" He gives you a pretty good idea of how it is going to go down. I picked up on this earlier in Genesis 22, as I am sure everyone else already has:

4On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you."

I am sure some would say that Abraham was talking about just himself returning again but really? I mean what parent would speak so calmly about making a trek to slay their own child, only child (with Sarah) they had prayed so long to conceive? Unless, he had something so much more overwhelming going on inside of him. Something that was beyond the realm of the physical that captavated his heart and took his attention from getting his own son the heck out of there.

If we look at the Bible with only our physical eyes, what a bunch of crazy stuff. What Abraham entered was an intitiation. An initiation where God spoke a plan, Abraham listened and obeyed, and God came through. The fact that it was something sooooo profound and so heartwrenching only seemed that way for those of us that view it with the physical eyes. When viewing it with our hearts, hearts that have been redeemed, we see a glorious picture of a Father loving His son and coming through the way fathers should- teaching trust and obedience with a reward on the other end.

Lately, Jess and I have been distraught to say the least. We have so taken our eyes off of what is most important. We have set our focus short. We have set our focus on what is next to come here on earth instead of allowing the King of Kings to parent us the way He did Abraham. I can tell you from experience......I have felt more lonely in the last six months than I did the day Elli died and the few months thereafter. There is a peace that He gives that goes beyond any understanding here on earth.

People could look at our lives and pick it apart in 100 different ways, I am sure we could do the same. In the end, all that really matters is what is going on in our hearts because that is what comes out of the flesh.