Saturday, March 26, 2011

Reed and the Burning Bush

It is with a new perspective that I read the story from the Bible in Genesis 22.  This scripture tells the story of how God asked Abraham to take his son to the desert, find a burning bush and sacrifice the son he loved as a burning sacrifice.

Abraham loved his son Isaac but followed God's command.  Before he killed his son the voice of God said:




"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
And so Abraham was spared his son.

If you are like me, you probably read this passage and wondered "when could this passage ever have meaning in my life?"

I read it the other day and it now makes perfect sense to me.  We have to be willing to "give our family back to God".  Whether it is in one year, 10 years or 70 years they will all die and life on this planet makes no sense unless we believe in some higher power, something after this life.  Even our little children, as much as we think they are "ours" they really aren't.  God is only letting us borrow them and one day he will want them back.  It really our job to try and give them back better than we found them.

For Reed, I have been agonized by his sickness.  Sanfilippo Syndrome is horrible.  It does really bad things to children that have it.  How can we ever rationalize such an illness?  You can't and that really *is* the lesson.  We can't make sense of why Abraham would be asked to offer his son as a burnt sacrifice and I can't make sense of why Reed has this awful disease.  All we can do is give our children back to God in a better spiritual condition than we found them.


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