Blessings for a Flawed Follower

"By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son..." ~Hebrews 11:17

While it might sound odd, one of the reasons I am such a big Old Testament fan is because in it I see God stooping down and redeeming flawed people time after time after time. It's not an account filled with mostly good people and an occasional problem child. No, the Old Testament is packed with murderers, adulterers, doubters, and others who threatened to war down even the most resolute to a nub. People also dealt with everything from relocation and recession to infertility and blended families. Some had it all; others lost all. If we can get past our presuppositions and familiarity with the stories, we'll see people dealing with the same things we face today. You think blended families are hard today? Think about blending two (or more!) wives with one husband! And if infertility is hard today, imagine dealing with it when the only treatment option was another wife. Yes, our lives are complicated, but in many ways [Genesis 11-25] takes "complicated" to entirely new levels!


And while our lives are hard, the verse at the top also takes "hard" to a whole new level. 

Excerpted from the book "Cookies on the Lower Shelf" 
Part I: Genesis through Ruth
by Pam Gillespie