Do you look into the cloudless nights with your children to count the stars? Do you speak to them of the wondrous stories that have been told since the dawn of time, of how the stars came to be, of the mystery of the universe and indeed of life itself?
The greatest story ever told is a story that unfolds from the beginning of creation to the present day. It is the story of the fall of humanity from grace and the gift of hope, of expectation that one day all will be made right. And this story is peopled by those names with which we are so familiar: Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Aaron, kings, prophets, John Baptist.
Planning your family may often be more like luck than planning. If you have already waited some years there is the anxiety about what might go wrong, about fertility, about age, about the kind of world you would be bringing a child into. There are a variety of assistive reproductive technologies.
Abram/Abraham is often called our father in faith. A wealthy farmer, he and his wife, now elderly, are childless. Living somewhere in the land of Ur, an ancient Sumerian city-state, Abraham receives a message from the Lord: Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:1 – 3). In a leap of faith and obedience to this nameless and yet-unknown God, Abraham packs up his household and animals with the promise of future generations. In the land of Canaan (Gen 18:1 – 10), Abraham and his wife are visited by strangers who promise to return in a year when Sarai/Sarah would by then have a child. Thus begins the journey of salvation. For us Christians the focus and epicentre of this epic saga is the person of Jesus, the mystery of Jesus. And like Abraham, this is an act of faith.
If you are a mystery novel reader, the author’s intention is that you must link together the many clues to solve the crime. In reading back into the scriptures, the Christian finds the clues to God’s intentions for humankind. St Paul (Col 1:24 – 28) believed that this mystery had been hidden for hundreds of years, but that now, The mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory: this is the Christ we proclaim. It is now revealed to believers, the saints.
When those children arrive that you have longed for, like Abraham and Sarah, it is time to ponder such beautiful gifts. It is time to thank ‘our lucky stars’ that through us, as parents, we continue this incredible epic as we seek to live out lives with our children that model Christ, that celebrate the new creation, that our hopes and dreams for them will be everlasting life at the centre of life itself – in the mystery and heart of Jesus, for we are among the blessed.
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