Blessed and a blessing

I just realized we are off a day - that the journal starts with Sunday, not Monday! So I'm going to skip reflecting on Noah (sorry, Noah) and jump to Abraham to catch up. I like these readings about being in a covenant with God, especially as I prepare to make a covenant before God in just over a week. A covenant is a big deal - it's not a hand shake or a "cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye" sort of promise. It's much more serious than that. It's something holy, that we go into with the utmost awareness of what the covenant might require of us. Abraham, in this covenant with God, is promised land, lots of kids, and a nation. In return, Abraham has to trust and follow God.

I've always been curious about Gods' appearances to Abraham. I'm wondering what it looked/felt like. Did Abraham get the burning bush like Moses? Or something equally as random? I also find it interesting that in Genesis 17 - it's Abraham who laughs at God's pronouncement that Sarah will have a baby. We usually think of Sarah being the one who laughed at the absurdity of having a child so late in life (Genesis 18) - but Abraham did as well.

Even when we try to trust God and discover what God would have us do, it's good to know that we can give a full, hearty laugh towards the extraordinary things God might have in store for us. But then we move beyond the laugh and do what we have to, to make it happen!

-Melanie