Return... the time of life Gen 18:14

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

This is a simply question asked by the Lord to Abraham. If he were to ask it of you what would you say?
The Lord answers his own question in Luke 1:37 . " For with God nothing shall be impossible."

I have lived long enough now to see the Lord's miracles in my life. I have seen prayers answered. I have felt the whisper of the Spirit's breath upon my ear. I have known things about my own life, my children's lives that only a mother with an ear upon the winds of heaven could hear. And then there have been times when I have not heard. Times when I have not understood and I have known what it feels like to be lost. I prefer to have the Lord and his miracles. With the Lord I am never alone and time has not place. The Lord is the ruler of all time. This I know to be true.

My most precious memories have come when I have held to the Lord's promise, "for with God nothing shall be impossible." As I considered Sara and her situation I marveled at not only what the Lord did for Sara and Abraham but the lesson he wishes to teach each of us.

In Sunday School a week past, we studied in 2 Nephi 32. We talked about how the Lord will do nothing except he will reveal it through his prophets. We talked about what the prophets purpose is: to testify of Jesus Christ and his divine mission in life. Why? Why testify about Christ? Why worry. If he is to come, won't he come? Jesus Christ is the reason for the joy of all of our life. The prophets soul purpose is help us remember his divine mission.

Why testify? Because as humans we tend to forget. Didn't the Israelites forget about baptism and God have to remind them through the covenant of circumcision? Didn't they forget again while wondering in the wilderness? Don't we easily forget? As I listened this week to a favorite hymn I was reminded of how easily we forget. "Take my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for the courts above." I don't want to forget, but I do. Was Sara prone to forget the Lord?

Sara was not going to forget this lesson of faith. She was near ninety years of age, well past her child bearing years and possibly had thought that her blessings promised to her were misconstrued, misinterpreted or not meant for this life time. Her season had come and gone and "It ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women." (v.11) She was "Old and stricken in age," and said herself, "I am waxed old." (v. 13) 


So when the Lord's three servants appear at the door of Abraham's tents what was their concern for her? Let's look at verse 10 and then 14. They like all prophets had a mission. They were to return her " time of life." 

10. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and low they wife Sarah shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. 
14. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

When I understood these verses my life changed. I knew that God was the creator of all things. I knew that God was the creator of all life. And I guess I knew he had created our concept of time too, but I had not thought about it with regards to our personal lives while on this earth. Here is an example of God turning back the clock of life so that he can fulfill his promise to Abraham. He said to Abraham, "I will return unto thee according to the time of life." How could he not do this without the power to control the time that rules our lives?

Literally the sands of time had passed through the hourglass and as far as man was concerned could not be returned. But three holy men show up, three priesthood bearers called to bring the miracles of faith to fruition, and Abraham's faith is fulfilled. He had faithfully believed all that God had promised him.
Do we, like Abraham believe all that God promises? Or do we watch the hands of time tick tock against our faith?

In my own life, I too must admit I have had blessings that I believed had slipped through my hands. I too have wanted to let time be my greatest enemy against my faith. I have believed first in the hands of a clock as it ticked against my will and forgotten the hands that rule all time.

My greatest example is how as a young girl I prayed ceaselessly for my own mother to forgo her grief of a lost son and find the faith that I embraced in a living God. I married and moved away from my home to raise my children in the heartland of the Midwest. My children knew their grandmother only through summer visits. My heart broke but nothing could be done to turn back the hands of time that had taken our family away from parental roots.

So when I read these words the other morning I cried. I cried because my daughter sat before me telling me of how she had just come from lunch with her grandmother. I cried because I realized that my own prayers, not too unlike Sarah, had been answered. My children that had not know their grandmother's influence while in their young years were now able to know her wisdom, her wit and most of all her deep love for them. And now they teach her. Through the gospel that is instilled in their lives, they teach her about faith, discipline, and family. Their lives have become a living testimony for my mother to grasp hold of. She studies the gospel daily and gains strength that comes solely from faith.

I wonder if it would have been the same if we had stayed close by during their youth? I wonder like I wondered about Sara and her mothering of Isaac. Would she have had the same faith as a young mother that she did as a mature mother? Would she have entrusted Isaac to Abraham? to the Lord's purposes? Time does make a difference in our lives. Time does heal. And time, as the three prophets come to Abraham's tent proved, time can be restored.

God will return to us, according to our faith, according to the "time of life." What that time is must be a personal promise between God and each one of us.

I sat with my daughter that afternoon past and I too laughed in amazement at what my heart knew was true. All of my prayers had been answered in a most glorious way. Abraham's and Sarah's prayers were answered too. Not in the way they wanted. Not even in the time of life as man understood it, but in the Lord's way. A way that surely brought a deeper understanding of His love for us. A way that surely will catch us all by surprise and we too might catch ourselves laughing, not in a scornful way but in a quiet respectful, joyful way. I laughed quietly. Then I cried for the goodness of my God.

The Seed of Immortality Genesis 13-14

Genesis 13: Abraham's Immortality.

13: 16  And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.

At the turn of the 19^th century, when pioneers began to cultivate and settle the southeastern region of our nation, the Carolina Parakeet existed in copious numbers.  Their brightly colored feathers and intelligence made them popular pets that were often captured and trained. Highly sociable birds their distress over a fallen or wounded comrade kept them from fleeing when faced with an imminent threat of gunfire.  Afterward, many were known to perch nearby on branches or over their fallen friends unaware of the hunters’ malevolent sport.  By the beginning of the 20^th century this social behavior played an important role in their eventual extinction.

Extinction sends a permanent death sting to the last of a species seed. Without seed God’s creations are but a blink in his vast universe. Without seed all that the Carolina Parakeet could have taught us about compassion, sociability, loyalty, friendship, and innate intelligence is, along with their genetic memory code, lost forever.

If extinction means to loose the perpetuation of one’s seeds, what does immortality mean? If one could find a way that their seed were ensured exponential reproduction would they not be defining one type of immortality? Abraham would not live forever, but his moral beliefs, teachings, and increase of intelligence would, if he could find a way to ensure his seeds survival. And what of our God? Would Abraham’s survival not testify to his power and love for all of mankind?

 

As I was reading how Abraham was promised that his seed would become as the “dust of the earth, ” I wondered who were Abraham’s contemporaries? Other than the “Epic of Gilgamesh” which archaeologists had to search for and is dated before Abraham’s time, we don’t know. Yes there are civilizations in China, in Asia, and other parts of the world but where are there genealogical records that tell their story? Their records did not purposefully survive to tell their tale. The key words are “purposefully survive.” Why was Abraham’s seed able to not only purposefully survive but also purposefully retain a written historical record? The answer lies in the true covenant that Abraham enters into with the God of Heaven and Earth.

I thought about Abraham and about God’s role in helping his progeny beat the odds of extinction. Clearly life was treacherous. No civil law had yet succeeded in bringing sustainable peace. As Genesis 14 points out the kingdoms were at war and barbaric practices allowed them ransack and plumage their foes.  Although Abraham was given great wealth and promised great land, his desires turned more to the protection and preservation of his family.  In order to find immortality and defy extinction, one must begin to think less about self-survival and more about family and community welfare.  Was it part of God’s plan that Abraham had to wait and sacrifice for his own seed?

The Carolina Parakeet understood the principle of caring for one another. Prior to farm settlement their system of group protection had served them well. But faced with ever changing circumstances and the threat of immoral predators the parakeet lacked the power to find evolutionary answers. Abraham must have understood that a higher power would be needed to ensure the survival of his seed. The ability to perceive, believe and understand this higher power would need to be instilled within the moral code of his seeds genetic memory.

In a time when childhood mortality, war, natural disaster, disease, famine, drought, plagues, and other expected accidents bore constant threat to one’s survival, Abraham’s contemplation of immortality through the continuation of his seed might have seemed off centered, just a bit.  Abraham begins to consider his father’s idolic religion as empty and vain.  He turned to the prophetic counsel that followed Adam’s creeds and settled in his mind the reality of one God and one creator. He defies his father’s multiplicity of Gods and listens to only one God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. 

Abraham’s faith in the God of heaven and earth led him to understand God’s omnipotence. He becomes the chosen “son of Adam” to enter into a spiritual and binding covenant with a living and powerful God.  He begins to ponder how his family’s social behavior affects their prospect of survival. His recognition of his prosperity and success as a direct blessing from his "most high God" sets an example for his family and community.  When offered the plumage of warfare by King of Sodom, he refuses so that King of Sodom cannot say that he has made Abraham rich. (Genesis 14: 23)

 Abraham wants to make it clear where his blessings come from. He begins to consider that there are life events that he alone cannot control, but with the help of an all-powerful Creator, he might not only increase his chances for survival but through the power  and example of “exercised” faith he could ensure the survival of his seed as well. (Genesis 14:22)

Abraham’s decision to put away idol worship and serve one God sets into play a new way of thinking and considering life. When he hears God speak, Abraham listens. He teaches Sarah to listen. Together they begin a pattern of life that allows God’s power to direct and protect them. Abraham’s God is powerful. Abraham is able to converse and counsel with his God over major life decisions. Abraham is able to enter into a covenant that promises him all that he would need to ensure his immediate and eternal survival.

I love hearing stories about the Carolina Parakeet. They were not only beautiful birds to gaze upon but their behaviors toward one another causes my heart to pause and ask, “Why couldn’t they have flown away? Why couldn’t they survive? Why did this beautiful specie of a bird have to become extinct? What was lacking in their evolution that kept them unaware of the dangers? 

I believe the answer lies in understanding the importance of whom you place your faith. If we chose to place our faith in society and in our own strength we too might face extinction. But when we, like Abraham face our fears and believe in the inward power of faith in a true and living God we find a power greater than that of evolutionary selection.  Abraham became God’s man of covenant because he understood God's power of love and this inward contemplation of the power of love. He set in motion a new type of man, one that would worship not out of rote desperation, but rather out of a true power of faith. An obedience born of enlightenment and respect for divine truth. 

And this faith is what would ensure Abraham’s seed the possibility of not only the security of a happy life, but one possible of ensuring that his seed might one day be as numerous as the infinite “dust of the earth.”  

A Letter From Mother Eve

A Letter From Mother Eve 

My daughter do you know me? 

Your first mother come from Eden’s garden? 

Born of Adam’s dream

A “help meet” to reach beyond 
the realm of senses and  

explain what reasoning cannot.

I am taken not from “the dust” 

But rather from a rib. Called woman

I was created to marrow bone 

To flesh two lives into one.

While I watched in Eden’s garden,
 There came, of every creation,
 “of their kind”.

I waited for the experience 

That promised you.

My son, do you know me? 

I am caught somewhere between 
the first lie that twisted
faith into reason. 

Yet I heard in Eden an echo

of Heaven’s perfect truth.

And I knew I was meant for more

than the garden’s perfect play. 

 Eden gave all I could ever need.

But from wisdom’s choice 

and from The God’s experience

Comes all that I shall ever love.

Some will blame me for the first fear. 
For as we heard God walk within the garden,
Our conscience awakened and
We felt his feet tread upon our hearts.

 But as I stood tall before God’s love,
As I  accepted my first choice
My love for you became real. 
You became real and

   I showed, the “first faith.” 

For though from the garden we were cast

Your eternal spirit might never have known 

The joy from the "God's experience" 
 that was meant to forever last. 

My daughter do you know me? 

Do you understand that within you 

lies the promise of each new day? 

Hope, anticipation, curiosity, and childlike faith

You, my daughter, are the Eve of every promised tomorrow.   

Linda Conkey Shaw April 8 2011 Copyright