Already in the Thicket

Context

Abraham waited twenty-five years for a son. God promised him a family bigger than the stars, then made him wait until he was a hundred to hold the one kid who'd make that true. Isaac is that kid. The whole promise walks around on two small legs now.

And then God asks for the boy back.

Story

It's still dark when Abraham gets up. He doesn't wake Sarah. He splits the firewood himself, takes Isaac and two servants, and starts walking toward a mountain three days out. Seventy-two hours to talk himself out of it. He doesn't turn around.

On the third day he loads the wood onto Isaac's back. They climb alone. Then the boy asks the one question Abraham can't answer.

"Dad — we've got the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb?"

At the top he builds the altar stone by stone, ties up his son, and picks up the knife. Then the voice. The angel calls his name twice and tells him to stop. Abraham looks up and sees a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. The lamb was already on the mountain before he ever crested the hill.

What We Learn

Abraham never stops believing he's bringing the boy home. We'll come back, he tells the servants. God will provide, he tells his son.

Being asked to release the promise isn't God deciding you can't have the good thing. It's God asking whether you'll hold it with an open hand or a closed fist.

The ram was already in the thicket. You just can't see it from the bottom of the hill.