Lent 2: Covenent

 Today we jump to the Hebrew Scripture/Old Testament reading to consider how we Covenant with God in our lives and actions as we look at the story of Abram in Genesis. Mary and Elizabeth in the New Testament offer inspiration of ways we say “Yes” to the seemingly impossible plans of God.

This week’s collect (prayer) from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer says, O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. It acknowledges that we do fall away from God’s ways. The prayer reminds us that in the “unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ,” we are brought back to relationship with God.

In the Hebrew Scripture reading for this Second Sunday of Lent (Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18) Abram has a vision where God affirms the covenant of relationship with Abram. God assures him that, though he is currently childless, he will have descendants as many as stars in the heavens. Abram believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. How many of us would be able to believe in thousands of descendants when all the physical appearances say the opposite? However, God keeps the promise through decades and centuries until Christ and even to us, now.

In my book, Sacred Story: Yours, Mine, Ours, I look at the stories of Mary of Nazareth and Elizabeth as women who can teach us about saying “Yes” to God’s (seemingly) impossible actions. I note, “Saying ‘yes’ to God means risking being changed…the two women say “Yes” to God’s action. Elizabeth prefers to keep her pregnancy a secret. Mary, on the other hand, wants to share what happened and hurries off to the only person who might understand. They each accept the risk of saying ‘yes’ to God’s work”

In the book, I invite readers to join with “Mary and Elizabeth [living] the reality of being, and birthing, hope…If we look deep within our story, we may very well find times when we heard and said ‘yes’ to speaking God’s word in our lives and actions.”

Despite the thousands of years between Abram and the women, God is faithful. Elizabeth’s child will proclaim the coming of the one who fulfills the covenant with Abram. Mary carries in her womb the One who IS the fulfillment. As noted in the Epistle to the Galatians (3:27-29), all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. We ourselves are the fulfillment of the promise and covenant!

As inheritors of the ancient promise of God, we are invited to respond and enter a relationship with God and God’s people. We are invited to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) That looks different for each of us, God loves the diversity of responses to enact God’s work and dream.

Where have you heard that invitation to covenant like Abram, Mary, and Elizabeth to say ‘Yes’ to God’s promise for your life and our world? 

Are you willing to believe that your life can bear fruit ‘as many as the stars in heaven,’ despite whatever current appearances are?

Bible Women and Milk

For Easter-tide we’ll offer thoughts, history, and recipes based on my book A Sampler of Bible Beauty. In our own homes, we can find solidarity with the women of centuries ago by creating some of the foods and beauty products they might have used. As we think about ways they flourished and were faithful in their time, which certainly didn’t have all the benefits we enjoy, we may learn ways to flourish even in self-isolation.
We start with milk, a staple of all cultures. In the book, I postulate that it might have been one of the very earliest Bible women mentioned who first used milk. The story of Adah and Lamech is found in Genesis 4:19-24. Milk isn’t specifically mentioned, but they did have livestock, which means they would have had access to milk when the sheep or goats or camels had young.
There are many places where milk and milk products are mentioned in the Bible. One notable citation is the description of Canaan as the land of milk and honey. (Exodus 3:8, 3:17, 13:15, 33:3, Deuteronomy 6:33, 11:9, Joel 3:18) This promise to the Children of Israel meant that they were entering a rich land of abundance.  
Milk was used for hospitality, as told in Genesis 18:1-8. When the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, Abraham makes them visitors welcome. He tells Sarah to make bread, slaughters and cooks a calf, then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
Curds are the milk solids that form cheese. During the cheese making process the milk solidifies and is cut into chunks which ultimately form the cheese. The liquid, called whey, is drained away. The longer the draining and drying time, the harder the final cheese product. Abraham provided his heavenly visitors with the softest and sweetest ‘first cheese’ by giving them curds.
Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite uses milk to welcome and soothe Sisera when he flees from Deborah. She then murders him with a tent peg while he sleeps, gaining her a place in the book of Judges for her courage. (Judges 4:19, 5:25)
In the New Testament, Paul and Peter both use milk as an analogy for those who are new in the faith. (1 Corinthians 3:2, Hebrews 5:12-13) Believers are advised to rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Peter 2:1-3).
Ancient women, whether it was Adah or others, were probably the ones who realized how useful milk from the domesticated sheep, goats, camels, and cattle could be. It is thought that cheese was discovered accidentally when milk was stored in skin bags. The tannin in the skin curdled the milk and turned it to cheese. It was probably not long before women began experimenting with using milk products on their skin, too.
Women in many places around the world are still directly dependent on flocks and crops rather than grocery stores for their supplies. While we are limited in our access to going to the handy neighborhood market, we may take time to pray for the thousands and thousands of women who still milk their animals for their families. Consider supporting something like Heifer Project that provides livestock to women and families around the world to give them independence and access to healthy food sources.

Make one of these recipes in solidarity with women who don’t have a handy grocery store. You can make yogurt at home. You can use it for a snack, or in the face scrub recipe. You can also use store-bought plain (organic if possible) yogurt for the face scrub.

Adah’s Homemade Yogurt
3 cups cold milk
1/3 cup nonfat dry milk powder
¼ cup commercial, unflavored, yogurt culture* (or one dry packet)
2-4 tablespoons sugar or honey (optional)

Heat milk gently to about 200^oF, stir in nonfat dry milk powder. Do not boil. Cool to 112^oF. Mix 1 cup of warm milk with yogurt starter culture.* Add to the rest of the milk. Pour immediately into the clean, hot 1-quart thermos, cover and incubate about 4 hours. Refrigerate immediately. Use within 10 days. Homemade yogurt will be thinner than store bought variety. Add honey, sugar, fruits, granola, or other ingredients when serving, as desired.

You can use a crockpot to make a larger amount. Here’s a recipe. 

*An active (living) yogurt culture is needed as a “starter.” Yogurt starter cultures can be purchased at health food stores and online in dry or live varieties.

Zillah’s Facial Scrub
½ cup yogurt (homemade, or store-bought plain, organic)
½ cup oats
Process the oats in a blender or food processor until extremely fine. Mix with the yogurt.  Use as facial scrub. Keep refrigerated for up to a week. The lactic acid in the milk provides natural skin softening benefits.

More recipes and stories of women of the Bible are found in A Sampler of Bible Beauty by Cynthia Davis. 

The Lord's Prayer: Who art in Heaven

How did your praying with just the words “our Father” go? Did you make a word picture and add your own prayer requests? Did you calligraphy or make an acrostic? Did you just sit with the two words and let them soak into your soul? How does it feel to just sit with ‘our Father’? Feel free to share in the comments if you want.

This week we will look at the words ‘who art in Heaven’. This phrase reminds us that God’s home is heaven. But what does that mean? What is ‘heaven’? Where is it?

Enter the Presence: I suppose our modern concept of ‘heaven’ is different from that of a first century Jew. After all, in the first century, heaven was the sky above that was vast and unreachable. We have pierced the sky with our rockets and visited the moon and even other planets. We have seen images of stars and galaxies so far away that they would have seemed impossible to a first century person. Astronomers cannot really guess how many stars there might be in the universe. David Kornreich “used a very rough estimate of 10 trillion galaxies in the universe. Multiplying that by the Milky Way's estimated 100 billion stars results in a large number indeed: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, or a "1" with 24 zeros after it. Kornreich emphasized that number is likely a gross underestimation, as more detailed looks at the universe will show even more galaxies.”

I’m sure the magnitude of stars in heaven would have been a shock to Abraham who was told by God, "Look up at the sky and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." (Genesis 15:5) We are heirs of that promise.We are one of ‘Father Abraham’s sons [or daughters]. (You remember the Sunday School song!) If there are really 10²⁴ stars, then there are that many beloved sons and daughters of God! Abraham’s clear desert sky would have shown with myriad stars, but he could not have seen beyond the Milky Way, nor imagined that there were stars beyond what he could see. (The picture below of a section of the Milky Way from the Hubble Telescope shows how packed with stars the sky really is.)

Stand In Awe: Yet I think, I hope, there is still some mystery about heaven. Even the scientists aren’t sure of the extent of it. We may never really know how many stars there are. We can, however, know the One who made the stars. Psalm 8 is reminds us of the One who is in charge. We are told that God’s glory is ‘above the heavens’ and that the moon and stars are the ‘work of God’s fingers’. Read through the Psalm slowly. Does the psalm give you a different sense of ‘heaven’ than the scientific estimates of numbers?   

1 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! 

You have set your glory above the heavens.
2   Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
   to silence the enemy and the avenger. 

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
   mortals that you care for them? 

5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
   and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
   you have put all things under their feet,
7 All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
   whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 

9 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Involve your Heart: Read through the Psalm again, perhaps in a different translation. Is there a phrase that makes you stop and think about God and God’s heaven? If you have a chance, find a place beyond the city lights where you can see a wide expanse of the night sky without interference from street lights. Even if you cannot get out beyond the city. Turn off your lights and sit outside looking up at the stars. Just sit and look at the heavenly skies.

Consider what it means to pray to Our Father ‘who art in heaven’, yet who loves us intimately as one of Abraham’s children.

Perhaps you’ll want to continue the same activity you began last week. You could add to your ZenTangle around the word ‘Pray’.

You might prefer to find a way to record your impressions in a photo or drawing of the night sky, or by composing your own psalm God ‘who art in heaven’. 
Draw a bunch of stars on a paper. Each star is a person, place, event, or other prayer request. Can you pray for every star on your page?

Maybe you want to have some fun and sing the Father Abraham song and do all the motions, remembering the promise of God to the patriarch!

This week focus on just the words “who art in Heaven”.

Next week we’ll look at the phrase ‘Hallowed be Thy Name’. 

Sarah: Nothing is Impossible

In the past couple of weeks since Easter, we have ‘heard’ women of the Old Testament share their stories. We have heard how God loves us through our ‘what ifs’ and provides a new promise when things look really scary, and everything you know has washed away. Sometimes the answering of an impossible prayer is how God responds to our needs. Sarah speaks to us from her life:

I was born in Haran. When I was old enough, my father gave me in marriage to my half-brother Abram. It wasn’t long after that when Abram told us all that he knew Elohim, the Living God, had told him to leave Haran. We all argued with him. I was full of questions and arguments.

“How can you want to leave all we have ever known? How can you ask me to leave my family and friends? You don’t even know where you are going. The people are strange to us. It could be dangerous. Our father will never know the joy of holding our children if we leave.”

If I thought any of my words would have any affect, I was wrong. The man simply smiled and assured us all, “The Living God will provide a way in the wilderness. Remember how our Grandfather left Ur to come here? This is just another part of that journey.”

Of course I had no choice. When Abram was ready, I followed him down the road out of Haran. Our father walked slowly beside us to the edge of town. There he embraced us and turned back. I felt tears welling in my eyes. They spilled over when the old man turned back.

“May the God of my father, whom you follow, go with you and bless you and give you sons and daughters.”

I shed many more tears over the years that followed. There were no children at our tent doors. The Living God spoke to Abram, promising him offspring and even changing his name from Abram to Abraham. The new name felt like a knife in my heart because I was barren and could not be the instrument to make him the ‘father of many’ as the name indicated.  

I knew I was cursed because I had doubted Abram’s call from God, and now I was past the age of child bearing. My monthly cycles had ended. There was nothing left for me but to dry up and die like a desert weed. In desperation, I allowed my Egyptian slave girl to bear a son with Abram. It was a custom of the people we lived among and one that Hagar was familiar with, too.

“At least he will have an heir of some sort,” I tried to comfort myself as I watched her belly and attitude swelling.

Ishmael was born, a strong and healthy boy. Hagar’s pride knew no bounds. I spent most of my days in the tent weaving furiously so that I didn’t have to watch Abram playing with the baby. Most of the time I could barely see the cloth for the tears rimming my eyes.

One day Abram welcomed three strangers to our tent. We were pasturing the flocks near Mamre. As usual, I was in the tent. I heard Abraham greet someone.

My husband spoke the standard desert greeting, “Let water be brought to wash your feet. Rest here and I will bring bread.”

“Make three cakes of fine flour. I will prepare a calf as well,” my husband told me as he rushed through the tent.

He did not see my astonished expression. I peeked out at our guests wondering who they were to merit such regal treatment. To my eyes, there was nothing surprising or special about them. To please Abraham, I made my special cakes, which were usually reserved for feast days.

I lingered near the tent opening when Abraham returned and served his guests. I heard one ask “Where is your wife, Sarah?”

My eyes opened wide in astonishment. How could these strangers know my name?

Abraham shrugged toward the tent, “She is there in the tent.”

“I will return to you at the right time, and Sarah shall bear a son.” The stranger’s audacious statement made me gasp and then chuckle in derision.

“Am I to have the joy of a child now that I am old?” I felt my lip curl slightly, even as tears blurred my eyes and a strange hope struggled in my heart.

The stranger could not have heard me, but he said, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I bear a child at my age?’ Is anything to wonderful for the Living God? I will return to you and Sarah will have a son.”

“I didn’t laugh,” the whispered denial was almost drowned by the frightened pounding of my heart.

The stranger smiled in the direction of the tent. It was a tender and understanding expression as he nodded, “Yes, you laughed.”

Soon the trio and Abraham walked away from the tent. I was left with a tumult of thoughts. Uppermost was an almost unbearable feeling of hope.

“Could it be true?” I asked myself again and again. I even asked Abraham.

“The Living God has promised to give you a son,” he responded as if it was the most natural thing in the world for a 99 year-old woman to have a baby.

When my body began to change, I remained hidden. I was not prepared to answer questions about how such a miracle could happen. Slowly I gained the confidence, and faith, to accept the reality that I would be a mother. The women of the camp rejoiced with me when I finally admitted that I was pregnant.  

After 9 months, a son was born. Abraham named him Isaac, a reminder of both my laughter at the promise, and the joy the child brought to our lives.

“Who could have guessed that Sarah would nurse a child? I have born a son to my husband in his old age.” I laughed and rejoiced with the man.

“There is nothing impossible for the Living God,” agreed Abraham.

Has there been a time in your life when you doubted that something would happen?

How has God kept a promise to you?  

(Image: 'The Hospitality of Abraham', 13th Century Byzantine Icon)

(c) Cynthia Davis 2017 

Loving One Another with Hospitality

Since the beginning of the month, we’ve been looking at ways to live out our relationship as Blessed Children of God. Last time we considered the idea that Serving in Love is a way to bring light and hope to a hurting world, even in the smallest of ways.

One way to Serve in Love is by offering Hospitality. There are many examples in the Bible of men and women of God showing hospitality to strangers. The Gospel last Sunday, for many of us, was the story of Abraham’s meeting with the 3 strangers. It is an extravagant example of hospitality. “When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth…” Genesis 18:2. He then proceeds to provide a fabulous meal by having a calf roasted and telling Sarah to make cakes of ‘fine meal’ for the guests.

At the home of Mary and Martha, in Luke 10:38-42, we find another example of hospitality. Martha “opened her home to him”. (I find it intriguing that we are told it is Martha’s home, not Lazarus’, but that is for another meditation.) Martha then proceeds to work herself to a state of frustration, while Mary offers the equally important hospitality of sitting with Jesus. Martha, as we know, doesn’t appreciate this and storms in, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Jesus response can be seen to be an indictment on Martha’s workaholic attitude. On the other hand, perhaps Jesus is saying, ‘I just want to hang out and visit with my friends. I don’t need a big feast. I need your company and Mary understands that.’

Both Abraham and Mary offered the Hospitality by Being Present. This is the willingness to sit with someone and spend time in conversation and quiet and sharing the gentle breeze. It is way too easy to be ‘too busy’ to find time to do this, even (or perhaps esp.) with family members. We each have our own agendas to get through. We each have our electronics to check. We each have places to go and people to see. It is too easy to end up staring at the TV rather than having conversation. Then we become strangers, even in our own homes. We do not know one another’s thoughts, hopes, dreams.

The Letter to the Hebrews admonishes us to “Continue in brotherly love. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:1-2) We need to be friendly and welcoming to the strangers among us, whether a newcomer at church, a homeless person asking for a lunch bag, the clerk at the grocery store, or the new co-worker. We might also consider rebuilding the bonds of friendship with family, with neighbors, with friends we haven’t seen for a while.

Recently I have seen a rash of ‘un-friendings’ on Facebook because someone disagreed with someone else’s political views as posted. Is this a symptom of jumping to conclusions about how well we know another person simply based on the car they drive, the politician they support, the house they live in, the color of their skin?

Maybe if we paused to sit and talk, rather than just posting this or that comment from some politician or another, we might discover that we are more alike than we thought. Perhaps if I paused to get to know the neighbor who worships differently than me, I’d discover that her God and mine are indeed the same God.

I challenge you and myself this week to practice being present to someone-a family member, a stranger, a newcomer. Take a few minutes to listen to their heart. What might we learn? 

Chosen as Bride

Welcome the current blog series where we are exploring images of the Bridegroom and Bride in scripture and how that could inspire us to live more fully as bride or spouse for the Holy Bridegroom. This time we are considering the aspect of Being Chosen as the ‘help meet’, to use old language.

In Biblical times, and still in some cultures today brides and grooms had very little choice in who they married. Our modern, ‘Western’ sensibilities are probably offended by that idea. Aren’t we supposed to ‘fall in love’? Don’t all girls want and expect a ‘knight in shining armor’? Some have suggested that the idea of romantic love is a construct built on the idea of chivalry, which at its core could be considered truly a search for the Holy Bridegroom in all.

Recently, my husband has become an avid viewer of the series Merlin on Netflix. The series is based, as you would imagine, in the time of Arthur before he was king. It’s made me look into Arthur and Camelot history and reality vs. legend. Apparently the ‘real’ Arthur was not the medieval king of knights and ladies faire but a Celtic chieftain. It was thanks to Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and Idylls of the King by Tennyson and that the image of chivalry, romantic love, and gallantry emerged.

Indeed, up until fairly recently, parents, esp. fathers had a much greater say in who married who. The union of man and woman in marriage was often a business proposition for the betterment of the tribe and family. Families looked for a strong son-in-law to work the farm, a sturdy maiden to bear sons, an alliance with a neighboring lord to improve the strength of the holding, etc.

Back to the Bible. You don’t have to look far to find that the Biblical patriarchs also sought to build up the tribal unit. Marrying within the family line was important in maintaining tribal purity for all ancient peoples. Abraham sent his servant back to his home town of Haran to find a wife ‘from my relatives.’ (Genesis 24:4) Rather than allow Isaac to wed just any girl he fancied from the Canaanites, Abraham wanted to maintain tribal integrity with a girl from the same lineage.

The same thing happens years later when it is time for the sons of Isaac and Rebekah to find wives. Esau marries a Hittite woman. Rebekah uses that as an excuse to send Jacob safely away from his brother's jealousy. (Genesis 21:46). Only then does Esau marry someone of his great-grandfather’s lineage: Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael. (Genesis 28:9) Meanwhile, in Haran, Jacob falls in love with Rachel but ends up marrying her older sister Leah first because of the marriage laws and customs. From their children, the 12 tribes of Israel are descended.

Throughout scripture God refers to the people of Israel as chosen, in relationship similar to choosing a bride. Psalm 135:4 says, “the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his treasured possession” (or beloved bride). Isaiah 42:1 is repeated in Matthew 12:18. “Behold my servant, who I uphold, my chosen/beloved, in whom my soul delights.” Peter echoes the sentiment, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” (I Peter 2:9)

The prophet Jeremiah uses the bride image openly. “’Return, faithless people,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I am your husband, I will chose you…’” (Jeremiah 3:14 NIV). Of course the imagery in Hosea is that of God choosing to take back even the faithless bride. (Hosea 1-2). The metaphor continues in the New Testament when Jesus tells his disciples, “You did not choose me, I chose you.” (John 13:16)

Like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had brides that were chosen for them, the Father chose you and me (male and female) as the bride for the Holy Bridegroom. You and I are chosen as the perfect one to continue the family lineage. I think that is pretty awesome. Paul gives the Colossians a recipe for living out the relationship, “as God’s chosen…holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12) We are chosen and betrothed and wed to the Holy Bridegroom who will never leave us or forsake us (no matter what we do)!

Next week we’ll look more closely at one Old Testament bride.

Ordinary Time Excursion-Sarah

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the seeming inequities of life. It started with our visit to Leadville. Seeing the abandoned mines along the roads and up the mountain sides spoke to me of the great dreams of so many men (and women) who hoped to strike it rich, but so few did. On the other hand, the ‘lucky’ ones who did find gold or silver became VERY wealthy. In Leadville, Horace Tabor is a key figure. His wealth brought modern luxuries like gas lighting and the Opera House to Leadville, but he died a pauper. His (second) wife “Baby Doe” died destitute and alone in the middle of a Colorado winter in a cabin at the Matchless Mine 30 years later. Legend says she was hanging on to the mine in hopes of a resurgence of wealth, even though it no longer belonged to her. I suspect she felt it very unfair that the repeal of the Silver Act ruined the life ‘to which she had become accustomed’.

Our excursion today takes us back to a woman who was also troubled by the inequities of life. We first meet Sarah as a young bride. (Genesis 12) Her name is Sarai and his is Abram. It is not until many years later that God renames them Sarah and Abraham. Her great desire is to be a mother, but she is barren. This is a deep grief and even shame for her.

When it seems that God is not going to answer her prayers for a child, she tells Abram, “‘You see that the LORD has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.’ And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai…He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.” (Genesis 16:2-4)

Now isn’t that adding insult to injury. Hagar, the slave sneers at her mistress because she is pregnant! Sometimes life just isn’t far, is it? The writer of the Psalms often felt that way. However, in Psalm 37:5-6, the psalmist says, “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday.” I’m sure that Sarah and “Baby Doe” Tabor both wished they could see their vindication. Tabor did not, but Sarah did, although she did not believe it at first. In fact, she laughs at God.

“Then one [of the heavenly messengers] said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’ The LORD said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’ But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’; for she was afraid. He said, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’” (Genesis 18:10-15)

Would you have believed the visitors? Sarah knew she was 90 years old (Genesis 18:17)! The wonderful thing is that God doesn’t hold her arguing against Sarah. In fact, I can hear a chuckle in the response, “Oh yes, you did laugh”. God knows that her dearest dream will come true and delights in the surprise in store.

The men and women who came to Leadville over a century ago, 30-40,000 strong in her heyday, were searching for riches. They established a city. We can look at the discarded mines as evidence of failure or look at the neat homes and abundant history of the city as evidence of the human spirit seeking greater and greater things. Since before Abraham and Sarah, humanity has searched for ‘success’. It comes in as many ways as there are people. For Sarah it was her son Isaac. For Tabor it was wealth, which used to improve the city he loved. For the Psalmist it is vindication.

How do you define success? Is it family, or how much you own, or your relationship with God, or something else entirely? Sometimes the easy answer isn’t necessarily the deepest or truest answer. Sarah’s dream was to have a child, yet it was in the conception of Isaac she learned of God’s love. The Psalmist learned to trust that God will act—even if it’s not always in the way we expect.

Tabor came to Leadville as a grocer and almost by accident became a Silver King. I wonder if he would say his success was the wealth or all the small miners he helped with supplies and groceries? Because of his early generosity, miners and railroaders watched over Baby Doe in her self-imposed seclusion. When they realized that there was no smoke coming from the cabin, they set out to find out why and found her body.

Our paths are not simply a journey from point A to point B. We don't really know where we are going. Things that look unfair at first, may turn out to be blessings. Sarah thought she was helping God or doing God's will when she gave Hagar to Abram so he would have an heir. God had a better plan and her actions did not change that plan. Tabor arrived in Leadville an unknown stone mason turned shopkeeper. He ended up one of the more famous of the Silver Kings of Leadville because he took over a 'failed' mine. The men and women who came looking for gold, founded a city. Sarah and Abraham, despite their very human failings were the founders of a dynasty.

Who knows where your path or mine will end up? When we “Commit your way to the LORD [and] trust in him, " we can, slowly, begin to see that what we think are inequities are maybe just big surprises from God. 

Come back next week to see what God does with Esther's life and courage.