Missionaries and Their Faithful Parents
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord , that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Every parent wants their kid to grow up and be awesome. This is the stuff of Hallmark movies, tragedies, and almost half of all commercials. Hope for the future of your child becomes an unwritten hobby in the lives of any new and old parent.
This might not apply to many people, but to those it applies to, it is of great importance. I’m talking about missionary parents.
For every family on a postcard on your fridge, there are probably some sets of parents that need your prayers too. As a family is working through their calling, their fundraising, and their training, there is typically a mom that is cranking up all new kinds of faith and fear. While some people move far away from where they live to go take care of their aging parents, God calls other people to do equally holy work of reaching the lost in far off places. Neither work is more worthy or more holy. Each person is fulfilling their calling.
In this event with Abraham and Isaac, there is a lot of hope for parents of missionaries. While Abraham obeyed God to do what God called him to do, everyone else all around Abraham was blessed. Abraham grew in faith. Isaac knew salvation first hand. Every nation of the world after that was blessed through Abraham’s descendants, which would eventually lead to the birth of Christ.
Now my own son is preparing to head off to Urbana, a giant missions conference held every three years. The obedience of Abraham doesn’t go away. As we grow up and worry our parents and advance the Kingdom of Heaven, so shall our children!
We obey, the Lord provides, and another generation grows up learning to obey the Lord. Let’s continue that cycle to the nations.
And pray for the Mom & Dad that aren’t in the picture on that postcard.
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