Apologies for the last blog, there were way too many spelling and capitalization errors. My “a” button on my computer gets stuck often as does the shift key and well I’m not the greatest speller, but I promise it is fixed for this time around. My subject today is something that is far more uplifting than the last time I wrote to you, but I am sure it will come across as a sermon and if so, oh well. There is in Genesis Ch. 24 a story that I think we often skip over or don’t put too much thought into. Abraham asks one of his servants to find Isaac (Abraham’s son) a wife from Abraham’s hometown and to definitely not get a wife from the Canaanites whatever he does. I’ll get to the rest of the story as we move along. Now for many of us there are so many times in our lives that we really don’t think God is doing anything for us specifically, that is to say for the individual. Things are happening to groups and other people around us, but what about “me”, we will often ask. We pray and pray and we don’t seem to get an answer and we will take that as God is not listening or is too busy elsewhere; he is anywhere but presiding over us at the time in other words. So I must say that on the topic of theology I personally do not believe that all of our footsteps are mapped out for us and I am a firm adherent to actual free will, but with that being said I wholeheartedly believe that God still points us in the right direction and it is up to us whether we take that direction or not. Abraham wakes up one morning and sends his servant off to find his son a wife, which if you think about it is a daunting task for anyone, that is to say, finding a lifelong significant other in one day’s time or at least at a moment’s notice is almost outrageous if I am really honest in my thinking. When something like that is launched into our lives a bit of panic will most likely set in. But of course the servant finds Rebekah (miraculously speaking if we really think about it) and of course she is the perfect woman for Isaac and lo and behold they later get married. In all of this it is undoubtedly safe to say that I do not think that the servant woke up that morning thinking “hmm I’m going to find my master’s son a wife today” and Rebekah upon waking up was most likely not thinking “hmm I’m going to get a husband today”. It is during these times when we don’t expect anything to happen or don’t think God is doing anything that he will often do something. Is it always earth-shattering revelations, no, but there is this sense that we need to have that even when we think God is doing nothing he is doing something. As previously stated it is hard for all of us single people to accept this at face value in terms of finding a significant other, we literally do not wake up in the morning and say “You know I bet Abraham has sent his servant to find me a spouse today”, but also as previously stated Rebekah nor the servant were probably expecting what happened to them at all. Free will is everything to us and maybe that is why we so often think God is “doing nothing”, but the fact of the matter for us is that even though we have the free will God is pointing out the right direction all the time and so it then becomes a matter of will we use that free will to follow God’s way or go it on our own in the other directions that are also laid out before us at every turn. I do see this instance in Genesis 24 as a miracle and so can you and I be patient enough and actually realize that whether we think it or not, God is doing something!
Kalos Elpis
Kelly M. Doolittle
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