Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2)
With this assurance, 75-year-old Abram and his kinfolk set forth for Canaan, trusting God to show them a new way. They went with a strong sense of being a people chosen by God to inhabit a particular place in a particular land. Jesus widens that understanding and extends the invitation to all. Anywhere. For all time.
What an incredible promise, to become a new people whose sense of relatedness is stronger than any national identity or attachment to one part of the earth. Look around. How will you follow this call to connect?
This message is adapted from a devotion written by Jean Martensen for Women of the ELCA in 1999.
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