To Move...or Not to Move

The second section of this week's Bible lesson struck me funny the first time I read it. It begins with an assurance from God that because we put Him first in our lives, we will not be moved. The very next section is about Abraham and what does God tell him? To pack it all up and move! Seems a bit confusing, but there are more ways to move or be moved than one might think.

Abraham was 75 years old at the time. He had devoted his life to honoring God, he was a good man married to the same woman for over 50 years. He had all the material wealth one could ask for. He had property and possessions. He was living in the ancestral home, surrounded by comfort. Yet, God tells him to move. Maybe Abraham was just a bit set in his ways. Maybe he had stopped making any progress or had given up on his heart's desire. When God tells him his is to move to a Promised Land and have great rewards, Abraham, a little hesitantly points out that he has no heir, no one to inherit all of it but his faithful servant from Damascus. With all the things Abraham had, he was without the one thing that mattered most to him, a son. Maybe he needed to 'move' from where he was so settled in body and mind. God assures him that he will indeed have descendants, as many as the stars in the sky or the sand on the shore. So off Abraham goes, taking his 70ish wife with him.

This promised child does not appear for another 20 years. But they were travelling that whole time. Abraham must have continued to grow spiritually through this process. At last, that son is born to them when he and Sarah are in their 90's. I find this very reassuring. They were at an age when such a thing was considered physically impossible...and yet it happened just as God said it would. Those of us who are in our golden years and may not have set aside a nest egg, may be worried that there is not time or opportunity for this to happen. Here is proof that it is. Our supply comes directly from God and is not limited to our physical abililty to earn it or save it. Those of us who face physical challenges connected with a belief of age can see here that all those limits and false beliefs can be set aside. Our youth is renewed like the eagle's, a beautiful story in itself. I wrote about that in one of my earlier blogs.

Mrs. Eddy was in what was considered at least middle aged in the mid 1800's when she discovered Christian Science. She went on to overcome every obstacle in her path as she wrote our textbook, established a church, lecturred in public, healed incurable diseases, opened a metaphysical college, formed a publishing company, edited the periodicals, and created the Christian Science Monitor. She left a substantial estate when she passed on it 1910. This sentence from the textbook appears in this week's lesson about God as Live: "Having faith in the divine Principle of health and spiritually understanding God, sustains man under all circumstances." She should know, she proved that and left Christian Science well established as her gift to the word.

I will be thinking about the ways I might need to be willing to 'move' my thought this week.