Today I Learned What The Gospel Was (1/2)

A seventy-five year old man sets out in search of a new home to build a family. He’s not really sure what it is that’s telling him to leave his homeland. It’s where his mother is buried, where his brothers and cousins continue to reside, but he knows that there is something else for him out there. 

So he goes. He takes his wife, a nephew to help out, and all his worldly possessions- he’s rich by a fair amount, and traveling isn’t cheap. He wanders along from Syria into Lebanon, and eventually all the way down into Egypt in Africa. 

Finally, after a very long ten years of knowing there was something out there for him, the man finally finds what he’s looking for. Or rather, it found him. One night is all it takes to change this man’s life. He’s eighty five. It’s taken a very long time for this night to happen. 

He goes outside and looks at the stars. 

The sky is vast and endless; the stars that shine there speak of something higher, something greater. This man realizes that in comparison to the vastness of the stars, he is nothing. There is something greater than him! But what?

“I don’t understand,” the man says aloud. His old eyes reflect the sky, that vast, perfect, intentionally placed beauty. “What is it you’re giving me? I can’t have what I really want. I want a son.”

“Abram,” a soft voice speaks. “Oh, my Abram, look and count the stars, if you even can! Understand that I Am greater.”

Abram still isn’t really sure about this. Ten years ago he was told to leave his home. His nephew had deserted him, he’d faced challenges with Pharaoh in Egypt, and Sarai his wife was seemingly growing more and more distant every day. And yet, there had been the idea of a promise- of something just for Abram, of a promise that was yet to be fully realized. 

“I need a son,” Abram whispers again, closing his eyes against the tears that are coming. “Father, I need an heir. Eliezer was born to my house, but not to me.” The absence of a child in their near-constantly moving household had not been missed by either Abram or Sarai, so it was decided that a servant born to the house of Abram would be given everything so long as there was no firstborn child to claim it. 

And at eighty-five, Abram was quite sure he and Sarai couldn’t have kids. 

“Look at the stars,” the voice came again. “As the stars cannot be counted, so will your descendants be!”

Abram’s mind flooded with thoughts of what had been told to him years ago- I will make you into a great nation. In you, Abram, all the families of the Earth will be abundantly blessed.

Was this all those promises finally coming to fruition? For ten years, Abram had not discarded the almost impossible notion that one day he might be made into a great nation. But Sarai just couldn’t have children. 

But the notion that lived inside him every day still said, Abram, there is so much more for you. 

“Do you believe Me?” Yahweh asked. 

Abram had a choice to make. He looked at the stars once more. A countless generation. 

“Yes,” Abram said. “Yes, Lord, I believe you.”

This was it. This was the new beginning. This was how the creation- His own image bearers- would finally return to know Him. YAHWEH could just see it now- thousands and thousands of His Beloveds, coming to Him from every corner of the nations. Oh, how He would use them for His works! Millions and millions- yes, more than the stars, just as He had promised Abraham! Each and every single one of them- LOVED!

YAHWEH begins to dance. His creations delight in Him as they watch His works- His world coming into what He always knew it would be. In turn, He delights in them! Waves and waves of people- of humanity, Adam and Abraham’s sons and daughters, come to Him to rejoice in the Wedding Song. 

But there is one- a girl, sitting on the floor, watching the crowds go by. YAHWEH sees her. She is dressed in rags. They are dirty. She is covered in dirt. Her sin stands out like blood on white snow. She could have been missed- overlooked- entirely. 

YAHWEH is instantly, absolutely in love. 

“I will choose her,” YAHWEH says. He leaves the dance to seek her, looking at her, keeping His gaze on the girl as she sits alone on the floor, watching the world go by. YAHWEH begins to run towards her, never slowing down despite the great distance between them. 

“You. I have chosen you!” YAHWEH calls to her. “You are the one I have done all this for!”

YAHWEH reaches her and takes her into His hands. He dresses her in stunning white robes, and she begins a tentative dance with Him, not fully stepping in time with Him, but YAHWEH is having the time of His life. A couple times, she runs away, but YAHWEH has made a promise that He intends to keep. 

He is faster, anyway. He chases His bride down each and every time, never stopping, never out of breath. He desires her. He will have His bride. 

“Listen to Me,” YAHWEH says to her as they begin the wedding dance. It has been eighteen- almost nineteen- years, but to YAHWEH, each day had gone by like the blink of an eye. Eternity is fast when you are inside it. 

“I want you to understand one thing,” YAHWEH tells her as they dance. There is a wedding band on her finger. “Everything I have done, I have done for you.”