The First Baby of Promise (Expecting Christmas)

In Genesis 18 and 21 God promised Abraham and Sarah they would have a baby, even though Sarah was barren and they both were well beyond child-bearing years. "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness." Years later, Sarah gave birth to baby Isaac. He was a miracle! God again promised to send a savior, through Isaac.

We have forced amaryllis bulbs in past years, so decided this would be a good day to continue this tradition. Some instructions for doing it are on the Martha Stewart site. The sprouting and growing shows the magnificent hand of God, just as God made Sarah able to have baby Isaac. Thank you Lord for new life!

The Present (day8)

The story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac, from Genesis 22, is on page 68 of "The Jesus Storybook Bible." Wow, is this a tough one. I cannot get through it without sobbing. I was hesitant to even read it to my kiddos, but the modeling/foreshadowing of God sacrificing his own humble son, is just so amazing. After reading it we talked about how Abraham trusted God fully. We played a couple standard "trust games." For example, one kiddo falls backwards and Mom catches them. Then Von (age 7) caught Alyse (age 4.) However, it wasn't a good idea for Alyse to try and catch Von. In this case, Alyse was not worthy of trust-- she would not be able to catch him. God is always worthy of our trust and always able to catch us.

the point? God is trustworthy