That Kind of Trust
This passage always puts me in mind of my father-in-law, Ridley Miller. He was an only child, and still single into his thirties, not a great prospect for being an “Abraham”, father of many. But God blessed Ridley and Jean with four children, seventeen grandchildren, and now, ten great grandchildren, including one named “Abram”.
The God who is revealed in scripture makes a bit of a specialization of this, lifting up those without great prospects to move forward the salvation plan. To bring all of the world back into right relation, to undo the terrible effects of the fall from paradise, the unlikeliest people and peoples are chosen for covenant bond and the tasks of the kingdom. Moses was plucked from obscurity to lead Israel from slavery to the promised land. A peasant girl, Mary, risked everything to bear the saviour of the world into the world. Saul, committed persecutor of Christians becomes Paul, the proclaimer of the hope in Christ to those not yet in the covenant.
God gives Abram (‘exalted father’) a promise: he will be Abraham (‘father of many’). This is the everlasting covenant now extended to us. The covenant is our primary metaphor for understanding our life in God: “I will be your God, and you will be my people”. The covenant brings us hope, it defines our identity and tells us who we really are, it creates a place of true belonging and provides us with our vocation, our calling.
You are called into the covenant through the waters of baptism, into secure hope, sustaining community and life abundant. For Abram and Sarai, the new life was marked by a new name. As a child of the covenant, what is the name you are given? A Puritan custom was to give children names to live up to: Fortitude, Patience, Endeavor, Honor, Joy, Hope, Prudence, Increase.
This Lent, spend a moment thinking on a name God might be calling you to live up to: Grace? Perseverance? Surely Abram must have been granted these in great measure to trust in God’s salvation plan when he was almost a hundred and his wife not much younger. Yet trust they did in God’s promise of fruitfulness and legacy, a promise secured by the covenant.
Can you live in that kind of trust?
Lord, help us to live with that kind of trust. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Diane Walker