God’s blessings, when and if they come to Avraham, do not come easily or quickly, but with much disruption and uncertainty. The land he is promised has famine and war, and the children he is promised are slow in coming and then threatened to be taken away. It often does look to us like God’s blessings are not coming to fruition in the world. In this meditation, we look to Avraham as a model of faith through such challenges, exploring how his connection to God girds and nourishes him, how he opens to God and also “talks” to God. We explore these possibilities inside ourselves and feel into how we might root ourselves in God like a tree, and eventually offer blessings to the world like a tree, learn to “be the blessing” that God told Avraham he would be.
This meditation was inspired by a dvar Torah my son Asher gave on Parashat Lekh Lekha.
Sources (in the order in which they appear in the meditation):
Genesis 12-22
Genesis 22:20-24
Exodus 5
Genesis 15:6
Genesis 18:1
Psalm 145:18
Introductory line to the Amidah prayer
Beatrice Bruteau, Radical Optimism
Genesis 12:2
Photo by Daniel Watson at Pexels
