The second in a series of posts from Genesis 12 and John 3)

Some things Abram did while waiting on God are helpful to us as examples.

Abram wandered a lot while waiting for God to tell him where to stop.

He was looking for food for his animals. So Abram did the work of a shepherd, the work he knew, while he was waiting for the where of God.

Sometimes we wait for God to tell us what to do. And while we wait, we don’t see what we are doing as God’s work. But Abraham did what he knew how to do while he waited. And it was how God took care of him.

Abram built altars wherever he went.

Abram would get to a place, pile up stones into an altar, and pray. The pile of stones was a way to mark the prayer, the contact with God. And he was probably hoping that each altar was the last.

This altar building meant that he was saying to God, “here’s a place that I will meet you, will you meet me here?” He was saying to God, “I know we can interact everywhere, but in this place, I WILL interact.” He was saying to God, “this is my way of reminding myself to talk to you.”

And then he’d move again, to take care of his sheep.

Wherever we are, we can worship.

Abraham made mistakes while he was wandering, but the wandering wasn’t a mistake.

But God protected Abram even in his mistakes, even when he tried to figure it out himself. God was looking to bless him. Not to destroy him. And it’s interesting to me that as he wandered, he’d go back to the places he built altars. Like he was asking God again about this home base.

Eventually, years after the process starts, Abram ends up camped in one place more or less. And he ends up with the promised son and more. And he has deep conversations with God. Which was what the promise had been decades earlier.

And it all happened because Abraham was living with the understanding that what he could see wasn’t all that was real.