Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Searching for the Lamb


“...but where is the lamb?”  Gen. 22:7

These five haunting words were spoken from the mouth of young Isaac as he and his dad prepared the altar for sacrifice.  He couldn’t have known what his father was doing, but was following Abraham’s lead.  He trusted Abraham and completely believed in his father’s love for him.  But what about those silent moments as his father placed him upon the altar, bound him and the reality was revealed?  He bound his son Isaac…’  What on earth could this young boy have been thinking as he watched the one he trusted most do something contradictory to love?

When my sister Beth lay dying with cancer, I cannot tell you how many times I looked to God and asked, ‘…but where is the lamb?’  When my father-in-law was in his final stage of Alzheimer’s living with us, I constantly cried out to my Father in heaven, ‘…but where is the lamb?’  Yesterday while on the phone with my dear friend whose husband is battling brain cancer, I listened through tears at the circumstances.  As I punched the end button on the phone, I sat down on the steps and cried asking God, ‘…but where is the lamb?’    Where is the deliverance from this season?

Although we completely trust God there are those silent moments when we do not understand what He is doing in our lives…why suffering is happening…why the lamb isn’t showing up.  Just as Isaac didn’t struggle or run away, we must crawl up on God’s will and surrender to His knowledge and His ways.  We may have seasons of silence feeling bound to a situation that we cannot understand and feels contradictory to love, but God will provide.  God will deliver us from the situation and will be on the other side to restore, heal and rebuild. 

Through our confusion in sorrowful circumstances, we can go to our Father with questions such as Isaac.  God will not waver from His will but He will never remove His loving and faithful hands from His children.  We will never be left alone in our circumstances and will eventually understand that Love never departed. 

“…and there in a thicket he saw a ram…And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided’” Gen 22:13-14.

No comments: