Spring Ready

I am ready for spring.
I am ready for the snow to melt away like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz. It was beautiful at first, a blessing, a forced Sabbatacal from God to stay home and watch him paint the world pure white.
But, like our lives, as soon as it lays still a few days it starts turning brown, becoming the color of whatever falls on it.
But we played in it a few days, making snow angels, leaving tracks, throwing it at one another, sliding down little hills, eating it.
But the roads were soon cleared and we left the crystal city and melted back into our routines.
But now I am ready for green, that fresh, brilliant green against blue skies.
I am ready for spring storms, thunder, wind and flashing lightning.
I am ready to head south and chase a turkey through a valley filled with redbuds blooming and the fragrance of lilac bushes.
I am ready to find mushrooms and think about fishing.
I WANT to mow my lawn now.
I am ready for spring.
Are you?

Abram, Who?

Who was Abram? I find myself reading Genesis through the lens of the New Testament, and I think it distorts a proper view of this man and his times. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I am studying the life of this "Forefather" of our faith and also leading our house church discussion covering this topic. I think that I have viewed him looking through the big lens of my own culture and faith rather than seeing him as a man of his own time and place, sort of like looking through a telescope backwards which shrinks the subject rather than enlarging it.

Read Genesis 11:31 through 13:2. Was Abram's roots rural or urban? What was Ur like? Haran? I have often imagined him basically sitting under a tree in the desert waiting for his wife to get pregnant, eating figs and curds keeping the flies off himself until God appeared as he occasionally did with another hint about Abram's future.

I don't think that was the case. I have benefited enormously by reading several books about Chaldean and Sumerian culture and religious practices that makes this ancient figure even more alive than before. God's call to him did not come in a place barren of history, religion, government, education or wealth. By the time of Abram, Mesopotamia was already an ancient civilization. Much living had been done by many in this part of the world. In fact we have more information left to us by this culture and the Egyptians than we do from the little strip of land in between that is so important to us.

This understanding incarnated Abram for me. It put flesh on him. The choices he made became more important. His listening to this God that simply "appears" to him and speaks became hinge points in history for me. Read the text, grab a bible dictionary, do a little research, tell me what you see. And enjoy! More later....