When we planned the trip we knew it would be hot, but we didn’t expect triple digits or for the car’s A/C to be broken. But that’s how the cross-country trip to move my son to college began.
Despite the sweaty circumstances, I loved those three days with my son. Standing in the rain together for coffee. Delighting together in the sight of a stand of pine trees after an entire day of only rocks on the horizon. Taking a selfie together at an unplanned stop at a historic site, proof that he loves me. And singing praise music together through miles of sunflower fields.
But the talks were the best. When Josh talks I listen carefully because his heart is full of passions God planted and is growing.
He shared nervousness at beginning college in person after two years of COVID isolation. He was excited to learn more but worried that he wouldn’t measure up. He was confident in following God’s guidance yet unsettled about how he would pay for it.
Was this similar to the conversation Abraham and Isaac shared after leaving the mountain in Genesis 22? The mountain where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac until God provided a substitute. On their long walk to Beersheba, did Isaac share excitement for his newly gifted future? Was he nervous about measuring up to what God had planned for him?
We can be sure of Abraham’s response to Isaac’s vulnerable sharing: God will be with you. God will provide. He just demonstrated that in the most memorable way!
It’s an immense privilege and responsibility to be a parent. Parenting provides daily opportunities to live out our faith: to support our kids in their walks with Jesus and to share our own steps of faith. My response to Josh: Keep obeying. God will be with you and will provide.
Abraham exercised his faith in God by putting Isaac on the altar.
Isaac exercised his faith in God by obeying Abraham.
Together, they both learned to love God more deeply.
Within family relationships, we can learn to love God more deeply.
