When I Awake to a Wider World

“Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.””
Genesis 22:8–14 NIV

A hard question can follow us through an ordinary day. We may stand at the kitchen counter with coffee growing cold, drive the same familiar road, or read the same message again while our mind keeps circling one concern. The problem is real, and we may already be doing all we know to do. But when one concern fills so much of our time and attention, it can start to feel like the whole story. Then, without quite knowing why, something we had not considered comes to mind. The problem is still there, but we begin to notice that there may be more in front of us than we first saw.

In Genesis, Abraham and his wife Sarah had waited many years to have a son. Their son Isaac was the one through whom God had promised to build a people and bring blessing to the world. But then Abraham faced a bewildering test. He heard God asking him to offer Isaac’s life as a sacrifice. On the way, Isaac asked where the lamb was. Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb” (Genesis 22:8), though he did not know how. At the last moment, God stopped him. Then “Abraham looked up” (Genesis 22:13) and saw a ram caught nearby. Only then did Abraham see the provision he had trusted God to make.

Could this be part of what awakening looks like? All Abraham could see was the terrible scene before him, but it was not the whole reality. He had not yet seen the ram, yet God’s provision was already there. God says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways” (Isaiah 55:9). We can be trusting God, thinking as clearly as we know how, and still be seeing only a small part of the picture. Awakening may begin when we discover that what we can presently see is not the limit of what God may already be doing.

Abraham did not wait until everything made sense before he followed what he believed God had asked of him. He moved faithfully with what he understood, while trusting that God knew more than he could see. Paul later wrote, “Now I know in part” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Maybe that gives us room to live faithfully without demanding a complete picture. We can follow what seems clear today while staying open to the possibility that God’s larger work may only become visible in His time.

An unanswered question does not have to become the whole meaning of a day. Our concerns may still be real, and the next steps unclear. But perhaps there is room to live with a little more quiet confidence and wonder. What if the new life God is forming in us also begins to open our eyes to a wider world we haven’t seen yet?

Prayer

Father, help me trust You when I see only part of the picture. Keep me faithful to what You have made clear, and open my eyes in Your time to what I haven’t yet seen. Amen.