Jasmine's Place Issue No. 14 - December 2014 | Page 55

I nearly tripped rushing down the stairs with the Book of God in my hands. I turned the corner, trying to keep quiet and not wake my daughter sleeping in her infant swing. I hurried into the kitchen to interrogate my husband. Surely Warren Wangerin must have taken some liberties with this story. Why on earth would God want a father who has waited decades to have a son ask him to sacrifice him? My husband was leaning against the kitchen counter eating trail mix, legs crossed facing me as I entered. “…Did you know about this?!” I asked him holding up my book in a frenzied whisper. “Ohhhh...” he said with a knowing smile, “what part are you on?” “Um…Abram, Abraham - um…He was going to sacrifice his son! That little boy!” “Well, you did keep reading didn’t you?” he asked. doesn’t hurt him, but why did God ask him to do that? Knowing he prayed to Him for the blessing of a son. Why? That seems….” I could not think of the word. “Harsh”, he helped. “Well…yes. That seems harsh – to say the least.” I ended up going back upstairs and read the actual account in the Holy Bible. As I am reading the Bible for the first time, I receive it in the context of where I am in my life, as a wife and a mother. As a mother with two children, it was hard for me to comprehend the type of obedience Abraham displayed to God. Why on earth would God ask a father who has waited decades to have a son to sacrifice him? “Yes I kept reading - I know he JASMINE'S PLACE 55