As the world turns!

Ok...now to step back from the whole eye thing and get back to the bible reading thing.  We're back in Genesis and reading about Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) and their children and man-o-man if that isn't the first soap opera ever, I don't know what is!  Think about it...

• Travels to a new land
• Passes his wife off as his sister
• There are Pharaohs and kings
• Names are changed
• Cities are destroyed
• A woman is turned into a pillar of salt
• Infertility
• Multiple wives
• son almost a human sacrifice
• Man works 7 years for one woman and is tricked into marrying the wrong one
• Man works another 7 years to finally marry the woman he loves
• Wealth
• Destruction
• Drama...drama...drama

It's all there!  Soap opera extraordinaire!  It is amazing to me that through all the drama, God's grace abounds.  That in spite of sin, lies being told, things being stolen, God's grace abounds.  In spite of themselves, God blesses them.

Now I think that there are some missing pieces to these stories.  I imagine that Abraham knew he sinned by telling the half-truth about Sarah (she was technically his sister - his half sister) and I also imagine that he repented of that sin. We may not read it in the bible, but I believe that it is there - between the lines.  I believe God blesses a repentant heart.

It could be too that God blessed Sarah not Abraham.  There were two people involved and true to the times, Sarah was submissive to her husband and did not counter what her husband said.  So perhaps God blessed Sarah and her love for her husband.  I don't know.  It is boggling to this puny little mind.

But through it all God's grace abounds.  He uses what is intended for bad and turns it into good.  Because of us humans, and our free will, it may be a winding road for God to get us to where He wants us to be but He doesn't give up.  He keeps leading the way and then patiently waits when we get off course.

I'm not sure if the soap opera of Abraham and Sarah is in the bible to show us their great faith or more to show us their imperfections and mistakes.  They were human too.  Abraham not only lied once about Sarah but he did it again!  He got caught up in what and who he could see and forgot that God is bigger than everything and could've protected him from anything and anyone.  I think that maybe their story is shared because of the soap opera not in spite of it.

If we look back, isn't there a little bit of soap opera in all of our lives.  Isn't there times where we messed up, knowingly even, and yet God forgave us and still blessed us?  Haven't there been times where we have picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off and tried again?  Abraham and Sarah are just like us or rather we are just like them.  Human yet loved.  Sinners yet forgiven.  Unworthy yet blessed. Weak yet, through God, made powerful.

So don't get caught up, distracted or discouraged by your soap opera.  Remember God used Abraham's and Sarah's to give birth to the nation of Israel!  Just imagine what He might do with yours!!!