Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Through Paths Unknown

“By faith Abraham…obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” —Hebrews 11:8

When Abraham was seventy–five years of age, God called him from his home in Ur of the Chaldees to move to Haran, to Shechem, to Bethel to Egypt, to the Negev, to Hebron… Rootless, homeless, “going…and not knowing.” That was the story of Abraham’s life. 

Age brings change, uncertainty and adjustment. It means transition from a familiar past to an uncertain future. It is movement from a much loved family home, to a smaller place, to a daughter’s home, to a retirement village, to a nursing home—the “final resort,” as one writer put it. So we, like Abraham, pass through paths unknown, making our way from one location to another, always traveling: “going…and not knowing.”

But we can be at home in any dwelling place, for our safekeeping lies not in the place in which we live, but in God Himself. We dwell in the shelter of the Most High; we rest in the shadow of His wings. In Him we take refuge; the eternal God is our dwelling place.

Others may choose our habitation, but God will be our companion and friend until traveling days are over and we reach our heart's true home. He will turn each dreary dwelling place into a house of grace in which we can shed the light of God’s loving kindness on other travelers—“light in His light to be” (Jesse Penn–Lewis)..


David H Roper

Going and Not Knowing

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing...