A reading of the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac, Genesis chapter 22
Our first hearing of God is invariably harsh:
We think our sacred task
is sacrifice, annihilation.
We bind ourselves up,
willingly narrowing
who we are.
Is this how You want it?
Is this how You want me?
But then an angel murmurs our name,
once,
and then again
as if we matter.
We pause mid tightly held knife
to comprehend.
Hineh, behold
there is another way
and we, we never knew.
We cry now for our blindness,
for the weight of all that toil.
We, we never knew,
that this,
this gentle acquiescence,
is God.
Photo by Ron Lach at Pexels
