God said, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering
on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
—Genesis 22.1-2
Maybe it’s a story about God testing Abraham,
to see if he’ll be so loyal
that’s he’d do something awful for God.
Maybe it’s about how when we care about our beliefs
more than our relationships
bad things can happen.
Maybe it’s about how sometimes we’re wrong:
a confession that sometimes
we’re so blinded by our religion
that we do awful things,
convinced it’s what God wants us to do,
and God has to stop us,
which is why God says in Hosea,
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
Maybe it’s not about Abraham
but the ancient Hebrew people,
the moment they realized that child sacrifice was wrong.
Maybe in the end what was sacrificed
was neither a son nor a ram, but a belief,
and our arrogant self-confidence.
Maybe it’s about how no matter what we believe
we have to keep listening.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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