Genesis 15:1-6 (NRSV)
Read Genesis 15:1-6 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 15After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."
Verse 2But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Verse 3And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." Verse 4But the word of the Lord came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." Verse 5He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." Verse 6And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Devotion
In leading Abram out to ponder the cosmos, God tells him something about space and time. If Abram’s descendents will inhabit the earth together, their world will be much more populated than his. If they will match the number of stars, then God has a long, long time in mind for this earth. Abram must have wondered what that world would look like, how his descendents would live and how in that new world they would remain faithful to God.
The vision of Abram’s star gazing washed over me recently when we celebrated my niece’s baptism. What will the world and church look like when she is an adult? What will being a sister of Christ require of her? How will she remain faithful to God? There are more questions than answers, so we remember that God is moving through space into this world we inhabit and through time into the future we inherit.
Prayer
Lord God, when the unknown darkens our hearts we pray for trust and courage to go where you instruct. Amen.