ALIVE: Chapter 39 Abraham the Great

Abraham suppressed the logical thought that shouted to him in his heart that his love for Isaac was good, and that to kill Isaac, to obliterate the son of his promise, would not only be evil, but nearly
suicidal. To kill his precious son, because God asked him to, was to defy all knowledge of good and evil.

When he set aside his knowledge of good and evil, Abraham entered the mysterious realm of faith and trust. In that realm Abraham was given a foretaste of immortality, of being alive in an incorruptible way because he had chosen to replace his will with that of his immortal God. It was only a test.

After he descended Mt. Moriah with his son Isaac in hand, Abraham's life resumed its ordinary texture and tone as an old wanderer and squatter. Slow steady rotations of sun and moon watched dizzying cycles of eating and sleeping, working and resting.

Not many moons later, Abraham's precious Sarah passed away in Kiriath-arba (Hebron). Sarah fell into a deep sleep, into darkness and then plunged into a deeper place of shadows from which she could not return. She looked down upon her lifeless old body with nostalgia and then wafted over to Abraham and hovered near him while he wept.

Filled with alarm and grief, Abraham asked the Hittites for a patch of land to bury her in. He asked for the cave of Machpelah owned by Ephron the son of Zohar. The Hittites regarded Abraham as a mighty prince among them, so Ephron offered to give Abraham the cave, but Abraham insisted on paying for it. Four hundred shekels of silver passed from Abraham's treasure chest to Ephron's.

More than sixty years after God first told Abraham that he and his offspring would possess all the land he could see, Abraham owned a cave in which to lay his sister and wife Sarai - Sarah.

God picked out Abraham from a field of ordinary men, as He had Noah centuries before, and then lured him repeatedly with the same promise of land and a royal lineage. By withholding and then promising land and children from Sarah and Abraham, God fed a yearning with which He kept Abraham alert to His presence.

Starting with Abraham, God marked a body of people to be His control group. He had created humankind in His glorious, intelligent and loving image and likeness for companionship. He longed to live in a world teaming with love and invention, with discourse and beauty. God loved nature and was proud of it, but His human gods had to master nature, not be subservient victims of it as they had become. God wanted to restore His image and likeness, and immortality, to humankind using their own free will day by day battling with and conquering the corrosive power of the blinding knowledge of good and evil.

The trusting moment Abraham raised his arm to stab precious Isaac began the process of reversing the distrusting moment when Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit. God knew the process would take centuries, but He had time.

The mark of the covenant, circumcision, was a genius way in which a nation of people could be identified as Abrahamic, particularly before they formed a distinct tribe with the temple and the law.

To be the son or daughter of the great I AM, is to have a strong ego. Unless that ego uses its equally strong will to unite itself to the will of God, then it is subject to death. It is enslaved by the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. To oppose or ignore the Source of Life, is to descend the chain of life below innocent animals, and like them to be victims of nature, and fodder for evil.

Everyone is born. Everyone with his or her own life chooses what is most important to him or herself. To grow here, and shrink there, to blow in the wind, or to burrow deep roots.

In a relationship with the almighty sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, keep in mind that He is in it for the long game. As we beg God to satisfy our longings, cast a thought for how our lives could be useful to Him. For many, that is not good enough; there is too much room for doubt and disappointment. Well, perhaps that's why Jesus said the road is narrow and few go there to eternal life. Yes, to some it's a big gamble, to others their ears are always alert to words from above for guidance and ways they can serve the Creator.

Abraham died at 175 years old, 38 years after Sarah, and was buried with her in the cave that they owned without ever having received the promised land.

Abraham gained very little in his lifetime. He never owned land; he had only one son with his primary wife Sarah. Yet, all of God's promises to Abraham came true. Abraham became the forefather of kings and of the King of kings. His children through both Ishmael and Isaac indeed posses all the land Abraham could see from where he stood on that day when it was first promised to him.

God is trustworthy. We who want to be truly Alive should be too.

ALIVE: Chapter 38 the Sacrificial Son

Perambula looked on in horror and turned to God in fury.

"My Lord, this is the most outrageous thing I have ever seen You do. What can You be thinking? How can You ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son?! If he does, then how can You honor Your covenant with him?" Tears streamed down angel eyes as Perambula's rage exploded. "Look at that innocent child! You are asking Your chosen one, Abraham, to behave as an ignorant pagan looking to satisfy an evil spirit?! I have disagreed with You before, I have misunderstood You, but I have never been so furious!"

God patiently allowed Perambula to vent. During a momentary break in the tirade He replied, "Be quiet and trust Me. I need to see if a man can allow his only begotten son to be sacrificed for the sin of others. I know that an ignorant animal can be sacrificed, but would a child be so trusting as to surrender, and could a father give up his only son, his most precious son in whom he placed all his hope? I need to know if this is realistic, if it is within the realm of possibility. I need to know if Abraham and Isaac trust me to the death."

Perambula listened intently to God's reply, then sighed, and meekly asked, "Shouldn't you have conducted this experiment BEFORE Abraham entered into covenant with you my Lord? Then, if the man failed, you could find another man, and if he passed your outrageous test, then he would be found worthy of the covenant. I am afraid that tormenting him so, and appearing to rescind your offer after-the-fact will tarnish your pristine reputation."

"God smiled big and replied, "Let Me worry about My reputation, but thank you for your concern. I have a task for you that will calm you down, but first, watch this."

Young Isaac lay still on the wooden plank with his arms and legs firmly encased in a net of unyielding rope. His arms hurt the most. How he wished he could stretch them out. His head throbbed. Even Isaac's little feet were tied up. He knew that his father was just stalling by using up every inch of rope, to postpone as long as possible the carrying out of God's cruel command.

Isaac closed his eyes, but the pain grew sharper, so he opened them again. Abraham could not bear to see his young son's eyes. He prayed, "God of my fathers I give to You what is yours: my precious son. Have mercy on me and my wife for the many times we have forsaken You. Help me and forgive me in the coming days, as I grieve, when I am lonely. Help me to cherish Your will and not my own. Help me to tell Sarah what I have done."

Isaac's mouth was not tied up. The child added, "Amen. Into Thy hands I commend my soul and my body." and then he closed his little brown eyes to begin his eternal sleep.

Abraham pulled the knife out of its sheath. It was time. He had to get this over with. He looked upon his yielding son and gained strength from his humble surrender. Abraham lifted his arm to cast the fateful blow into his beating heart.

Just as the knife began its dastardly decent, Perambula loudly called to him and said, "Abraham, Abraham!"

Abraham's arm and dagger fell without hesitation as he looked up and around to see who called. Without seeing anyone, he replied, "Here I am."

Perambula, proudly and joyously speaking for God said in a clear loud voice, "Do NOT lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son from Me."

Isaac heard the voice too. How suddenly did his obedience yield life instead of death; reprieve. Still tied up tightly, head still throbbing, deep within his soul a sensation of pure life, oddly secure and incorruptible welled up. Was it sheer relief or was its source more celestial than that? With closed eyes searching the darkness within Isaac looked for evidence of the God who asked for his death and then saved him.

Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. God had provided the sacrificial ram. He ran to grab. Without more rope to tie the ram with, Abraham immediately bludgeoned it with the happy knife so recently relieved of committing a much more dastardly deed.

While the dead ram bled on the hallowed ground, Abraham lifted limp Isaac from the bier and untied him. Isaac was weak and deflated. Saved from the power of the knife, Isaac sensed that nevertheless, he had indeed been sacrificed.

Like a sack of potatoes, Isaac was propped up against a rock and then His father lifted the bleeding ram onto Isaac's wooden bier and looked up to heaven to worship and thank his God.

Isaac mustered up the strength to ask, "Father, may I set the fire please?"

"By all means my son."

Little Isaac slowly rose and limped over to the little flame that had quietly witnessed this sacred scene. He carefully lifted the candle out of the earth and reverently lit the sticks as he had done numerous times before. The flame grew with vigor to consume the sacrificial ram. Isaac gazed upon the dead and burning animal. He had to turn his head and look away.

Abraham stood mesmerized by the flame as it consumed the ram instead of his son, first cooking, then burning, then pulverizing it until nothing was left of the innocent ram but ashes. The father and son sat in empty silence, their thoughts and feelings spent by overuse.

As Perambula and God also watched the wood being consumed, memories of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life, and then the Tree of Crucifixion welled up in God's timeless mind.

When the ram turned to ashes, and the sun was retreating in the horizon, Abraham and Isaac gathered the rope and the knife and headed back to the waiting servants.

Abraham said to Isaac, "I will call this place, 'The Lord will provide.' Isaac, wondered what God may have in store for his life as he walked ten steps behind his elderly father who was also deep in a syncopated rhythm of contemplation and worship.

As he walked, Abraham heard the Lord call him a second time saying, "By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gates of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed My voice."

God loved Isaac like His own son.

"Perambula, go and find the strongest and most able among angels to guard this precious child Isaac, perhaps fetch Michael. Go, and then come to tell me whom you have chosen."

"Yes, SIR!" replied Perambula before gleefully flying up into the heavens.

Meanwhile, Abraham and Isaac arrived at their servant's camp.

"Welcome master. Enter into your rest." said the young man showing Abraham the bed that he had prepared for him.

Exhausted, Abraham nodded, forced a smile and went into the tent to collapse in sleep.

The next morning the troupe packed up and headed back to Beer-Sheba and the refreshing well and Sarah who was waiting patiently for her son to return.

Watching the humble father and son as they stumbled over rocks to descend Moriah's mountain, God's mind flashed to the future vision of a great and magnificent temple built on the spot where Abraham proved himself to be a God-fearing man. There at that place thousands of animals will be sacrificed as punishment for the sins of man. The Temple Mount is truly hallowed ground where God was trusted as never before.

ALIVE: Chapter 37, Abraham's Test

One particularly hot and dry afternoon, Abraham, bent over his well, lowered the bucket and pulled up its cool refreshing water. After grabbing the cup to ladle it out and drink, he transferred the rest to his other bucket and carried his water to the tamarisk tree in whose shade he sat to pray and think. Abraham wondered how Ishmael was getting along; he wanted to give thanks again for his well, and he marveled again that Sarah gave birth to Isaac. As he was busy thinking about himself and his desires and concerns he suddenly and unexpectedly heard in his heart God call him.

"Abraham."

"Here I am." he replied.

God said, "Take your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you."

"WHAT?!" thought Abraham. Had he heard correctly? What an impossible request. Why would God wait all those years to finally grant elderly and barren Sarah a son, which in itself was a miracle, perhaps the greatest miracle the world had ever known; only to ask him to sacrifice this child?! How could there ever be another, how could he ever become the Father of a multitude, if he was not allowed to keep the one son who could ignite the succession?

Abraham instinctively fought this request. Could it be from the devil trying to take away the covenant promise? No. Abraham recognized the voice of God. But what good would killing young Isaac do? The angel of the Lord whispered in his broken heart, "God is not asking you to kill, as much as to sacrifice. What God gave you is His. He wants you to acknowledge that and give Isaac back to him. Would you deny the Lord what is His own?"

Ishmael's departure then began to make sense. Letting go of Ishmael, as hard as it was, was practice for letting go of Isaac. Abraham thought to himself that he could find the strength to sacrifice Isaac from the strength he had mustered to release Ishmael. What was the difference between death and Ishmael's absence? He had to trust God. Perhaps it will be through Ishmael after all that his children will come.

Abraham didn't know why, but he knew only one thing, that he had no choice but to accept the shocking command and obey God. As the master of men and animals, he knew the importance of obedience. And he knew that the Voice he had heard from time to time was wiser than he could ever be. To ignore this or any request from God was worse than suicide; it was to deny his own sensibilities. To deny it now would be to destroy all the altars he had built in his journeys through life and throughout the land.

Even as Abraham was deep in gut-wrenching thought, he slowly fell into a deeper sleep. Sleep was the only way Abraham could cope with the shock of this horrific request. In his sleep Abraham was given a vision of the place he was to take his son. It was high atop the mountain belonging to Moriah. He looked around and memorized every bush and rattle. He looked down at his surroundings and took in every feature of the place. Slowly this vision melted into total darkness and an empty healing sleep kept Abraham under the tamarisk tree all night long.

He rose earlier than usual the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, one to carry the flame and the rope, the other to carry the wood, and he took his son Isaac, and his knife. The troupe set out to go to the place that God had shown him in the vision.

On the third day of the solemn journey Abraham looked up in the distance and recognized the place he had seen in his vision. So he said to his men, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over to that hill. We will worship there and I will come back to you."

Abraham took the flame from his servant and gave it to Isaac and then took the rope and wood and off they went, Abraham and his precious son began the hike up Mount Moriah to worship and obey his God.

Over rocks and between sagebrush Abraham walked in silence contemplating the meaning and purpose of sacrifice. Isaac startled him when he shouted over to him, "Father,"

"Here I am, my son."

"The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

Abraham replied, "God himself will provide the lamb my son." Isaac said no more. Father and son spoke as they continued their trek up the mount, while innocent Isaac looked around for a ram to capture.

A mile later, Abraham saw in the distance the place he had seen in his vision. The flame flickered with fear and awe as if aware of its dreadful mission.

"There it is!" exclaimed Abraham to himself." Isaac struggled to keep up with his father, rushing over to him to see what Abraham recognized, still looking for the ram.

When they arrived at the site, Abraham dropped his load of wood and took the flame from his son's little hand. He then carefully planted the flame in the ground and piled small rocks around to hold it up while Isaac looked on curiously.

"Isaac, help me gather stones about this size to build the altar."

The child obediently and solemnly walked the site back and forth carrying grapefruit sized rocks to the spot of sacrifice. Abraham, holding back tears brought in the larger rocks, working as slowly as he could. He was thinking of all the lambs he had sacrificed with young Isaac watching.

Abraham had taught his son that God is perfect and demands perfection from people. Because Abraham had no law, and no example (i.e. Jesus) to follow all he had to do was to trust and obey God, exactly what Adam and Eve, and Noah had to do.

Abraham knew how he fell short from trusting God. He fell short when he gave his wife to Pharaoh, when he received Hagar into his bed, and on numerous lesser occasions. Abraham taught his son that animal sacrifice helped man to see the real tangible difference between life (trusting God) and death (mistrusting and therefore disobeying God).

Abraham had shown Isaac that life is the frolicking lamb nuzzling its mother to drink her nourishing milk and breathe in her sweet smelling sweat, while death was being restricted by rope, stabbed and burned to ashes.

Once the stone altar was built, Isaac watched his father carefully arrange the wood to lay a mighty fire, just the right proportion of solid to air. Abraham intended to build a fire so big that it would quickly consume its lunch of flesh and wood.

"Now, go get me the flame Isaac."

The obedient little boy hesitantly went over to dig out the precious flame and carried it to his elderly father. Not a breeze had blown to threaten the life of the flame since they had left home three days earlier. Keeping the flame alive when they slept required a rotating night watchman. Every time he transferred the flame, Abraham thought about what it meant, every time the old short candle kissed the new one, Abraham, pondered the life and death of his only son, and then he thought about mighty God who is without beginning or end.

After the flame was safely replanted closer to the altar, Abraham, with his knife waiting patiently in its holster, went over to the rope he had set down and approached his precious son. With tears filling his eyes he said, "My son, come to me."

Isaac lovingly and obediently approached his father, shivering with the sense of doom.

"You know why we must sacrifice the lamb, don't you?"

"Yes, father."

"Isn't it unfair to the lamb who was innocent to suffer the punishment of death?"

"Yes, father."

"Then isn't that the most noble creature of all?"

"Yes, father."

"We must be obedient to God or our lives are as ignorant as the lamb who neither speaks nor understands, and yet is punished for our sins. How much more just for an innocent human to be sacrificed for human sin. God has commanded me to give Him you, my precious son of the promise. You know how long I waited for you, all my life till I was an hundred years old I waited and longed to have this son that is you."

Tears began streaming down Isaacs young eyes. He sensed what was coming, but he didn't run away.

Isaac my precious son, our God has told me to give you to Him, as the sacrificial lamb."

"But father!" cried Isaac. "What did I do wrong?! I am sorry. PLEASE father forgive me! Mommy! Mommy!"

"My son, my son. You are innocent, as innocent as the lambs we have sacrificed together. But God asked me to give you back to Him in this way. You did nothing to deserve this, I promise you."

Abraham hugged his sobbing child. Isaac smelled love in his father's bosom. Swallowing down his tears, he tried to muster the courage he needed to accept his fate. Immediately, child as he was, Isaac knew that he, a human being, could not be compared to an ignorant lamb whose fate, sooner or later would be to be slaughtered and consumed. These thoughts started the tears flowing again. Did the God he heard his father speak of from his earliest conscious moments truly demand his life or could his elderly father be mistaken? Either way, Isaac knew that he was doomed to obey, and that the sooner he accepted death, the sooner his torment would end. Isaac bravely turned sobs into whimpers followed by a gentle silence. Still sitting in his father's lap the child rested.

Abraham consoled his precious son, "You and I will obey Him together. Giving the Lord your life is giving Him my own. I believe Isaac that in a flash like lightening you are going to see the face of God, to live with Him as a precious son, and I will remain to mourn you until with God's blessing, we will meet again at his throne. You, not I, have the best part."

These words helped to strengthen Isaac. He felt brave. His young life had meaning well beyond any other human he knew. His father from birth had taught Isaac to revere and worship God, now here was his test, and Abraham's test of that lesson.

Abraham solemnly released his son from his lap, and rose to fetch the rope. Both father and son were ready to get the sacrifice over with so that each could go his separate way, one to heaven, one to earth but together safe and sound in the Will of an omnipotent and mysterious God.

Soon, the rope replaced the strong arms of Abraham cradling his promise child. As Isaac sat tied up like a little lamb he pretended that the ropes were the arms of God holding him tight.

ALIVE: Chapter 36 The Tenant's Plight

The first year was the hardest. Abraham thought of Ishmael every day. He prayed for his son's safety and health. He missed his help and his loving ways. Infant Isaac was no substitute, but he offered a measure of welcome relief from his grief. Little Isaac also mourned the departure of his big brother. Father and son had this in common, together they prayed for Ishmael's safety. Little Isaac wept.

Abraham had other problems to distract him from the loss of his firstborn son. He still resided as an alien in the land of the Philistines and he still had threatening neighbors. Despite the mass circumcision with its pain and embarrassment, Abraham was still a squatter and a wanderer in a dry and dusty land.

Water was more precious than silk, more rare than four leaf clovers, more necessary than sleep. On land belonging to another, Abraham and his men worked day after day digging deep into hard ground without shovels or machines until finally they tapped a vein of cool clean water. Months into it, tough sweaty labor finally paid off. Hallelujah.

When his lazy neighbors spied the new well, their laziness gave way to malice. With weapons they arrived to seize the precious water, beating off Abraham's servants. Then they constructed barriers to keep Abraham and his people away from their well.

While war was in his heart, frantic Abraham wisely sought justice instead. He rode over to Abimelech, the landowner, his landlord, to complain. Luckily Abraham found both Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of Abimelech's army, together. Good. Abimelech could authorize him to take back the well, and Phicol could help make it happen.

Abimelech respected Abraham and was glad to see him approach until he came close enough for Abimelech to notice that this was not a friendly visit.

"Greetings Abraham, God is with you in all that you do;" reminded Abimelech with Phicol looking on curiously right hand on his sword. "Now therefore swear to me by God," continued the landowner defensively, "that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but as I have dealt loyally with you, you will deal with me and with my land where you have resided as an alien."

Aware that his anger frightened the landlord, Abraham calmly replied, "I swear it. I have come to tell you, that your servants have seized my well."

Abimelech, relieved that the issue was not threatening to him personally replied, "This is the first I have heard of this. I assure you that I did not order my servants to seize your well."

Abraham then fetched his sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech and they made a covenant. Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock.

Abimelech said to Abraham, "what is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?"

Abraham replied, "these seven ewe lambs you shall accept from my hand, in order that you may witness for me that I dug this well."

So they both swore an oath to each other that the matter should be considered closed. The well belonged to Abraham.
Abimelech gladly received the livestock, and shook the hand of Abraham in front of Phicol, "I swear on this day that the well is yours, and my servants will no longer rob you of your water. Go in peace."

Abraham replied, "I swear that I will always deal loyally with you."

Therefore the place was called Beersheba because they both swore an oath. After naming the place and swearing an oath to each other Phicol and Abimelech went off to the land of the Philistines.

Abraham returned to his well and announced to Abimelech's bullying servants that they must depart in peace. Then he planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. Thanking him for the peaceful resolution of what could have been a different situation, if Abimelech had instead favored the well thieves. Abraham thanked the Lord that justice had been done.

In turn, the Lord was glad for Abraham's faith who continued to reside as an alien with a circumcised penis, one young son, and no land to call his own.

After wandering from place to place, enduring days of famine, the eviction from Egypt, fighting for his nephew Lot, the embarrassment of the mass circumcision to mark his people as being in a covenant relationship with the Creator God without any evidence that he would have more children or grandchildren, or any property to call his own or to hand down the generations, and having his well seized, Abraham still believed and worshipped God.

Yet there was to be another test of his faith, more difficult than any other. One calm day when Abraham least expected it he heard in his heart God calling him. God said, "Abraham."

"Here I am." He replied.

"Take your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you."

ALIVE: Chapter 35 The Promised Child

When Sarah was ninety years old she miraculously conceived and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She named him Isaac which means laughter, because she thought it was funny that such an old lady could produce a newborn.

Sarah said, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me. Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet, I have born him a son in his old age."

When Isaac was eight days old he was circumcised to mark him forever as a man of the Covenant with God. He quickly grew out of infancy and was weaned. On the day Isaac was weaned Abraham made a great feast. Such festivities, such abundance Abraham's house had never seen. Even the livestock sensed the joy.

Ishmael liked his baby brother Isaac and played often with him. But whenever Sarah saw Ishmael playing with her miracle baby possessive feelings percolated up from her gut. Her disdain for prideful Hagar had been brewing for years and spilled over to this son of hers. Sarah fretted that her Isaac would have to share his inheritance with this child of a slave woman, especially because he was Abraham's firstborn. It causes one to wonder if Sarah's dilemma is the reason that to this day, Judaism is inherited from the mother rather than the father.

One night as Sarah lay sleeplessly fretting about Hagar and Ishmael, she decided that the only solution was to evict them both, something she should have done long ago. Sarah wondered whether Abraham would be willing to send his precious Ishmael away because she knew how much the father doted on his son. But that was exactly why this was necessary. Letting go of Ishmael would be a test of Abraham's allegiance. Yet, Sarah knew that even more than His love for her or Ishmael or Isaac, Abraham loved God. So she prayed to Abraham's God for help.

The next morning, after a fitful night, Sarah awoke determined to change the dynamic of her home. She bathed and washed her hair to make herself look as attractive and sweet-smelling as any hundred and three year old woman possibly could. Then Sarah set out to find Abraham.

Before long, she spotted him in the lower field inspecting the goats. He looked up and saw Sarah alone walking toward him. Abraham sensed by the rhythm of her trot that she was on a mission. He wondered what was on her mind, but knew he didn't have to wait long to find out.

"Greetings, beloved." said Sarah smiling in the sunshine.

"Was she wearing color on her lips and cheeks?" thought Abraham sensing that Sarah's purpose was grave. Abraham gave her a hug and a peck and replied, "What brings you here looking so lovely my dear? Could you have not waited until lunch-time to speak with me?"

Sarah went straight to the point sensing that Abraham was as ready as he ever would be to hear her demand. "I have come to tell you to cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of a slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac." There, she said it.

Abraham looked shocked and distressed. "How could Sarah make such a demand?" he thought. "Had she gone mad? His precious Ishmael! Never!" Then he said aloud, "How about simply sending Hagar away, and let my son stay? Perhaps we should have sold her years ago, when the child was first born."

Sarah stood firm, "I mean this Abraham. Isaac will have no peer. I admit, and how I have regretted it, that I was wrong to hand you my maid. I just couldn't believe that God meant me to be the mother when I was growing so old. Yet, he waited ten more years, when I was even much older to bless us with Isaac. Indeed this is a miracle child from your God, not Ishmael. Ishmael is the child of sin and doubt. All the more reason to erase him from our lives as a sign of repentance."

"Sarah, my dear, you have given me enough to think about." And then Abraham walked away deeper into the field with his head hung very low. Sarah did not see the tears spilling out of her husband's blue eyes. She did not feel the anguish in his heart. Instead, she turned around satisfied that she had set in motion events that would lead to her relief from rancor and malice.

Abraham walked deep into his fields. With every step he wished that he could part himself from her demand to expel his beloved son Ishmael. Memories of the joys this son brought him flooded Abraham's mind as tears continued to streamed from his eyes. His son, Ishmael, this brave young man who was the first to be circumcised in the covenant would be dead to him forevermore! How could Sarah demand this of him? She whose idea it was to give him this son, is now taking him away. Abraham pleaded to his God for counsel.

God replied. He said to Abraham, “Do not be concerned about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac. But I will also make a nation of the slave’s son because he is your offspring.”

This message from the Lord consoled Abraham. He knew that by sending Ishmael away, he was not only obeying Sarah, but that this painful decision was God's will and that made all the difference. Knowing that his beloved Ishmael would also become a great man reminded Abraham of the death of his father Terah. A man must leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. This was God's will that each generation travels away from the former to make its own way in the world, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but always it must grow away from its deep roots into the sunshine of its own world.

Fortified with these thoughts, Abraham rose early the next morning, took bread and a waterskin, and put them on Hagar’s shoulders. Ishmael watched curiously. Abraham said, "Hagar, it is time for you to take the boy and leave us. You know that God will be with you and the boy. But depart from us. May this bread and water satisfy you for as long as you need it to."

Hagar was astounded at the demand. A slave all her life she was unable, whether by habit or something else, to say anything except, "Yes, my lord." But her mind was filled with anger and fear.

Ishmael looked on shocked that this was happening. He always knew that Sarah despised him and his mother, and all his life he seemed to anticipate this moment. Especially when the baby Isaac was born and they had no more need for the son of a slave girl. It was as if Ishmael always knew in his heart this day would come. When it did, he felt relief mixed with sadness to leave his loving father. Yet, he was glad to never have to feel Sarah's malice again.

Father and son gave hugged a hug they knew was to last a lifetime. Their hearts beating beside each in a holy rhythm. Ishmael released himself first parting forever with a firm manly handshake and then abruptly turned and walked away to join his mother on the path that led them into the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

The mother and son walked in silence for days. Thoughts whirling in their minds, of fear, of anger, of retribution.

When the water in the skin was gone, Ishmael became weak with dehydration. They walked for two more days looking for water and finding none. On the third day, Hagar sat the weak boy under one of the bushes, and he moaned deliriously.

Then she took herself a bowshot away, and said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” So as she sat nearby, she wept loudly. God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is. Get up, help the boy up, and support him, for I will make him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water and quickly filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink.

When Ishmael revived, the mother and son continued their exodus, until they reached the Wilderness of Paran where the two settled.

Ishmael grew strong and tall. He went through life with his father's strong hands and crooked smile, and Abraham's fierce sense of loyalty. Only Ishmael's loyalty was to his mother, Hagar, who had suffered so much because of him. Ishmael became an archer who shot wild game to feed the village. Hagar selected a wife for her son from the land of Egypt, a lovely woman who gave Ishmael many sons, but none of them were circumcised on their eighth day. Hagar would not permit it.

In all this Abraham didn't know that his willingness to let go of Ishmael was practice for an even greater sacrifice that would be asked of him by his God.

Alive: Chapter 34, Commentary

The story of Abraham teaches us that a relationship with God, wth all three Persons of the Trinity, is similar to relating to any other person: a relative, a coworker, or a friend in that relationships require active involvement of both parties. Being in a relationship with the all knowing, all powerful creator of life is clearly a subservient one. Subservient relationships, unlike peer relationships, require a particularly respectful attitude and behavior.

So far, in this tale we see God as patient and intentionally uninvolved from time to time. For example, why did Abram and Sarai have to wander so? How could God passively accept Sarai in Pharaoh's bed, and later, why didn't God warn Abram in a dream or something that long term trouble would ensue because of Sarai's impatience that lead to giving her husband over to Hagar? More importantly, why did God wait so long to give Abram a son through Sarai?

Circumstances surrounding the birth of Isaac cause us to wonder whether the birth of Jesus Christ was the first miraculous pregnancy. The birth of Isaac from a woman well past menopause with an hundred year old man, was physiologically impossible. How did Sarah get pregnant? Was the miraculous impregnation of Sarah an experiment? Was it practice for the ultimate crescendo of human history, the impregnation of the Virgin Mary?!

God's use of Abraham was more important to Himself than it was to Abraham who received little more than promises for a bright future for his lineage and some land of his own. For Abraham, that was good enough.

The lesson is that in our relationship with God, we must be extraordinarily humble and patient, always yielding to His judgment and seeking His will and purpose above our own. Humility is willingness to be an instrument in the hand of God. Humility takes courage and fortitude.

Circumcision was quite a lot to ask of an old man; more still to command his staff of hundreds to follow. No one wants to force others to do something dangerous or painful.

Why did everyone have to be circumcised? This holy laceration of slaves and servants was not an option.

Millennia later, we know that God's purpose for the covenant was never about the land, or the Kings. It was to establish the lineage of His only begotten Son. But Abraham didn't know that, nor could he have understood the purpose of the incarnation. Some information is simply too big to explain.

Abraham truly became the father of billions, more than all the stars of the heavens, through Ishmael, through Isaac, and by adoption through his greatest grandson Jesus. God fulfilled his part of the contract.

Now, back to 99 year old Abraham and 89 year old pregnant Sarah. The plot thickens.

ALIVE: Chapter 33, The Painful Covenant

The birth of Ishmael presented to Abram the life he had yearned for. How he loved his precious son. Ishmael had his father's eyes and his hands; tiny versions of his own. Abram stared at Ishmael's tiny fingers and contemplated all that he would teach them to do. He was happy to cuddle the baby in his arms and pace the tent when he cried. Tossing him in the air to make him giggle.

Ishmael was one lucky boy, the only son of a wealthy old man who adored him. He was treated as a prince everywhere he went. As Ishmael grew up he returned the love of his father. Abram's 90th birthday party was a feast to be long remembered throughout the land. Four year old Ishmael had prepared a song for his father. The audience was delighted. There could be no doubt that this was his father's son.

Yet, Ishmael failed to be the son Sarai thought she would have. Hagar never let go. She so enjoyed keeping the child close to her and away from Sarai. How could a child feel any affection from the woman who despised his mother, nor did Sarai care. Yet, she never forbade Abram from fathering his son, knowing that some day the child would grow into manhood and would care for them both.

Months passed slowly into years, and Ishmael grew with them. On his tenth birthday Abram presented Ishmael with his own horse. A happier boy there never was. Together, father and son rode throughout the territory as king and prince for all the world to admire.

Ishmael learned quickly. By the time he was thirteen there was nothing that Abram did around the estate that Ishmael couldn't do almost as well. Ishmael learned to avoid Sarai. He loved to listen to Abram's stories of God, the God of Creation. His thirsty young mind wished that he too could experience visitations from the God of his father, but he knew that such an omnipotent and sovereign God spoke only to those he chose, and so far, God had not chosen to speak to Ishmael, only to his mother once. They both clung to those words of how great Ishmael would become.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, and Ishmael was a young man of thirteen, the Lord appeared to Abram one day when he least expected it, and said to him, "I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between Me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous." Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God."

God said again to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God."

Then God said something to Abraham that was so outrageous that if anyone else had suggested this, it would have meant war. Never before had God ever indicated why he chose Abram, but after 40 years or more of divine visitations, Abraham was going to show himself worthy of this holy relationship.

Perambula blurted, "Ahhh, Lord, am I finally going to see why You were so patient with Abram when he gave his wife to Pharaoh and when Sarai gave him to Hagar!"

God smiled mysteriously as if not necessarily to concur with Perambula.

"What does Abram, I mean Abraham have to do to hold up his end of the covenant. He gets all the land, and nations of descendants, including kings, and what do you get my Lord?"

"God chuckled and before announcing the requirement to Abraham he whispered to Perambula, "Foreskin."

"What!" exclaimed Perambula. Perambula had known God to be creative and wise, but this deal, even for God seemed strange to say the least. Then Perambula heard God tell Abraham:

"As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you:

Perambula focused on Abraham who was listening attentively with eyes closed while sitting under his favorite tree on a cool morning, waiting for God to spill it, wondering why He was hedging so long, curious as curious can be. What could the God of the universe ask from a mere mortal like him, and a flawed one at that. Finally He said it:

"Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins..."

Abraham's eyes opened abruptly and then nearly popped out of his head. He took a big gulp of air to reign himself back in. Did he really hear what he thought he heard God say? At first Abraham wrestled within himself, vacillating between belief and doubt. Finally he decided that it must have been God, because never in a million years would he have come up with such a thing as to ask every man in his home, including himself and his precious son Ishmael to put a knife to their penises.

God continued, "Throughout your your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant."

Silence. Abraham sat dumbfounded. How could he possibly convince his entire household to clip every penis among them? He knew that for him to have the land and the enormous family and heritage was worth everything, but what could he tell the shoemaker and the butcher that would keep him from fleeing, or worse revolting? Wouldn't it be enough just to circumcise himself and Ishmael, and their children?

God continued, "Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

"Okay," thought Abraham. God answered his question. No one, especially no man wants to be banished. He would use the power of the human bond to convince everyone to submit to the operation. They would, because it will be the only way they can maintain participation in Abraham's community. He would convince them that the God who commands circumcision will also protect them from their enemies, and feed them. He would explain to them Who this God is, and they will accept the pain and humiliation of circumcision for the lofty reason that this sacrifice will, in the long run, ensure their security. God was nation building, the beginning of many nations of Abraham. Abraham still feared giving this announcement, but at least he knew what his argument would be.

God continued to speak. Never before had He spent so much time with Abraham. Never before had God so much to say.

God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her."

Perambula looked at God at that moment and said, "Now I get it! You blew life into Adam with a HA! and into Abram when you added HA to his name to signify your breath of life. And by adding ah to Sarai, you joined them to each other as one complete breath! Right?" God looked at Perambula quizzically.

Meanwhile, Abraham, who could not hear Perambula, but heard God clearly, fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is an hundred years old? Can Sarah who is ninety years old, bear a child?" And Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live in your sight!"

God said, "No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, who Sarah shall bear to you at the season next year." Then God departed from Abraham. He had nothing more to say leaving Abraham with the problem of how to present this mass surgery to his people. Abraham thought he risked a mass exodus, but where would they go? These people were bound to him. If they left, the neighbors would round them up and bring them back.

Finally, Abraham mustered up the courage and told his chief servant to round up all the men, every hand from the fields and the carpenters and blacksmiths, and the cooks, butchers, and every man was called to Abraham's meeting. Even the boys were called. Ishmael rounded up all the boys who could walk. Father carried their infant sons.

When everyone was gathered Abraham spoke.

"Men," he said, "The God of all creation who formed this earth and all of the animals in it, who formed the heavens with its moon and stars has spoken to me on this day. He wants to mark us, you and me as His special people among all the peoples of the earth. He asks us to sacrifice a small piece of our flesh in return for His infinite blessings and protection."

The men looked at each other confused, wondering specifically what Abraham wanted them to do.

Abraham understood that he needed to get specific. "Men and boys, there is a piece of flesh on your penis at the tip that is unnecessary. In fact sometimes it can harbor dirt and germs. We are asked by God to remove that piece..."

Suddenly a loud gaff erupted from the audience in horror and disbelief.

"Please, calm down, listen to me!"

"It will only bring you pain for a little while. Thereafter we will be marked as the people of a mighty God that we are, that we want to be. God is asking us to sacrifice a tiny bit, yes even with some pain, but He is a generous God, and He will not ask more than we can take. My son Ishmael and I will be the first to undergo this operation.

Will all the butchers come forward."

Muscular young Ishmael sauntered out of the crowd and slowly and hesitating approached his father. Everyone's eyes focused on this feisty lad, beloved of his powerful father. Had Abraham gone mad? What would Ishmael do? Would Ishmael actually present himself to enter into a covenant with God?

Ishmael felt himself approach his father as if he was having an out of body experience. Logic told him to run away, but his love for his father, and his father's love for Ishmael drew him to Abraham's side. Abraham was proud of Ishmael once again.

There for all the world to see Ishmael, and then Abraham became the first to undergo the incision that would painfully mark them as God's chosen people, God's faithful business partners.

Seeing spunky thirteen year old Ishmael humble himself to his father impressed all of the men. One by one in his heart each man knew that he had no choice but to succumb to the knife. Never before had they been asked for so much. As the slave-girl Hagar gave her body to her master, so too would each slave-man, and each free man be required to offer up his body too. What was in it for them? The bond between master and slave would never be greater than on that day.

Abraham was relieved that his men willingly joined in this covenant with his God and with him. Somehow the mass suffering made it easier. He noticed a few men slip away and run into the hills and he let them go. Even Abraham didn't fully understand what the covenant would mean in his lifetime since God mostly referred to a faraway future. Yet, he knew in his heart that any man who would sacrifice himself, who would willingly obey God with adult circumcision would indeed receive in return the reward of His divine protection. No one else was offered land or children to become kings, but all suffered just the same, and God counted that as righteousness.

The men moaned for a week. Within the following three months sixteen baby boys were born and on their eighth day, they too were circumcised, they were given the mark of Abrham's covenant with God.

This massive first covenant act marked a mass conversion unlike any other in the history of humankind. Men from many tribes and backgrounds, now living in Hebron, united with Abraham to become a Hebrew tribe united by this hidden seal of God.

If Abraham was crazy, they were crazy too.

That there were no enemies surrounding them to take advantage of their temporary frailty showed them that perhaps they were protected by an invisible God. These proud men and boys in pain never felt so alive.

ALIVE: Chapter 32 - The Wrong Son

Our grandmother Eve decided to trust the crafty serpent instead of her Creator which caused us to fall into a wormhole of good and evil in which we sometimes swim and we sometimes drown. It doesn't help to wonder what the world would have been like had that one decision, by that one person, never been made.

She did it again.

Ten years after Abram and Sarai had settled in the land of Canaan, when childless Sarai was around 76 years old, and her 86 year old husband had waited too long to receive the promise from God of a child, in her impatience and distrust, she offered her maid Hagar to Abram, handing her husband's body to another woman as he handed hers to Pharaoh years before. Like Adam, Abram went along with his doubting wife. This time, instead of death, the world inherited the war between Arab and Arab, Arab and Jew.

It went like this.

"You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children;" said Sarai whose hair had grown white and brittle, and whose skin hung from her body in wrinkled folds like a sleeping garment. "go into my Egyptian slave girl, Hagar; it may be that I shall obtain children by her."

"Are you sure you want me to do this my dear? Remember the ills that befell us when I gave you to Pharaoh?"

"What ills? We left with quite a booty. It will be fine."

Abram did not know if Sarai's motives for making such a proposition were righteous or not.Yet, he had to admit that his longing for his own child had grown greater with every aging year. He wondered if Sarai was correct in thinking that God did not mean that his children would come from Sarai's body. Without consulting with God and without hearing from God whether or not to pursue using a surrogate, Abram cooperated with Sarai's plan.

"Abram, I give you Hagar to be your second wife, that she may give us children." And turning to Hagar she said, "Hagar, you are to receive my husband Abram and bear a child for us."

Hagar was thrilled with this request. No longer would she be scrubbing clothes on rocks, or foraging for food. Ever since she left Egypt and her family, Hagar had been forced to work hard, even on days when she was ill, even on days when she was tired or sad. Her life had never been her own. Sarai had been a hard task master, always telling her when to wake up and when to sleep and when and what she could eat. The prospect of becoming a wife of the master and a mother to his child was thrilling.

Hagar lowered her eyes humbly at this introduction, but her heart was raised high and proud. She replied, "I am your servant master Abram. Do with me what you will."

Abram took Hagar by the hand and together they walked away from Sarah and into his tent. Without a wedding feast or fanfare, without ceremony or sanctification, young brown muscular Hagar and old scratchy Abram joined each other for the sole purpose of bringing new life into their world. They kissed. Each with hope of what he and she could gain from the other. Freedom and honor for her, lust and a child for him.

Abram enthusiastically went into Hagar feeling like a young buck for the first time in decades. So pleasant was this union that Abram sought to repeat it afternoon and evening for several days, but at night he knew to go back to Sarai so they may awake in the loving embrace of two who had grown old together with all of the trials and tribulations life had given them.

After a week of mating, their days returned to normal, Hagar with her chores and Abram managing his estate. He felt stronger and healthier than he had in years. But he was also sensitive to Sarai's feelings remembering the sadness and the loneliness he endured when she was in Pharaoh's bed night after night.

Hagar became emboldened. No longer was she a slave woman. The sight of Sarai annoyed her. After all, wasn't she to be the mother of Abram's child? Certainly motherhood would catapult her in Abram's eyes. Life would be better if Sarai never existed. How could this old useless woman tell her what to do? So much had Hagar vilified Sarai in her mind that she could not bear the sight of her.

This treatment by Hagar, her arrogance, was something that Sarai had not expected.

Sarai announced, "That is enough Abram. If this thing is to happen it will." And she responded to Hagar with malice. Hagar returned to her old position resentfully. She had been born a slave being ordered to do whatever her masters commanded her every waking moment of every day, but never before had she felt so violated as when she gave herself body and soul to her mistress's husband. This was more than mere labor, it was reaching into the core of her being and ripping out her soul for Sarai's personal use and glorification. Morning and night Hagar's thoughts increasingly embittered her until weeks had passed and she missed her period. She waited for the turn of the moon until she was certain that her monthly flow of blood was not coming. When the moon was full for the second time, Hagar was sure that she was with child. With the master's child. Hallelujah. What joy, what revenge she felt. Abram would be the first to know. Perhaps he would honor her and truly love her.

Hagar waited until evening brimming with pride and joy. Yet, the opportunity to tell Abram eluded her.

"Mistress, you should know that I am indeed with child. With your husband and my child."

Those words stabbed Sarai in the heart. They were at once as bitter as bile and as desired as honey. Sarai conjured up the most nonchalant attitude she could, and said, "You may fetch the water now Hagar."

Hagar replied, "I will lie down and rest now." And walked away leaving Sarai speechless and angry.

Sarai walked directly over to Abram in the lower field where he was talking with the shepherd. He saw her approaching him quickly and walked toward her. When they met, Sarai said immediately, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and now that she has conceived, she looks on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!"

Abram faced his furious wife with tenderness and compassion and replied, "Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please." By saying that Abram risked relinquishing his child for Sarai, the child he had longed for, the child of his promise.

Sarai awoke the next morning refreshed. She had been empowered by her husband's words to take full command. She would thoroughly reduce Hagar from wife, to the slave-girl she really was.

The treatment was unbearable to Hagar. The delicious taste of glory and honor lingered in her mouth and she refused to replace it with bitter humility. Being with child Hagar was more sensitive than she had ever known herself to be. She cried more easily, felt outrage more intensively. She tried to find an opportunity to speak with the father of her child and beg him to defend her, but Abram intentionally avoided her which caused her anger to slip into grief and then despair.

As the countenance of Hagar plunged into the abyss of her soul, Sarai's rose. She felt her place. Her cruel demands proved that she was the queen, and not the dark surrogate. Her husband loved her with an enduring love and respect that surpassed physical passion. Abram was hers. The child would be hers too. This woman had come to recognize her place in their little world, and was securely fixed there.

On the morning after a tongue lashing Sarai had given Hagar for neglecting to wash her undergarments, the heat from sun the came earlier and was more intense. She was thirsty and looked for Hagar to bring her fresh figs for breakfast. The slave was no where to be found. She ran looking for Abram and was relieved to find him meeting with the manager of the cattle. He hadn't seen Hagar either. Neither did Abram seem overly concerned. The thrill of anticipation over the birth of his son or daughter had been spoiled by his wife's rancor. If he cared about Hagar's absence at all, he didn't dare express that to Sarai who stormed away.

Sarai continued her fruitless search as her mind whirled in a mixture of glee and anger.

Meanwhile, the angel of the Lord found Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where are you going?" She said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai." The Angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress and submit to her." The Angel of the Lord also said to her, "I will greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude." And the Angel of the Lord said to her,

"Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, (God hears) for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.

He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin."

So she name the Lord who spoke to her, "You are El-rio, (God who sees) for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing Him?" Therefore the well was called Beerlahai-rio, it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

Hungry Hagar returned slowly to her prison filled with awe of God and filled with child. She could now bear Sarai's wrath knowing that God planned for her to be the matriarch of a nation of people from this little fighter whom she felt kicking the walls of her womb.

Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
"Lord?" Called Perambula to God as together they looked down on this drama.

"Yes Perambula?"

"Don't you care that Abram and Sarai waited so long for a child and were reduced to finding a surrogate? Did Abram fail you by caving to his wife's request?"

"Perambula, what makes you think this is not exactly what I planned?" Is it my fault that it took them so long?"

"Fret not Perambula, Abram will still be given opportunities to prove his faith. Meanwhile, he has a precious son. Abram lives. He honored his wife, and he did not dishonor Me. Perhaps you too need patience Perambula. Let's go back."

With that, Perambula ascended into the clouds and beyond the atmosphere, glad to be leaving the affairs of men.

ALIVE: Chapter 31 Abram's Dilemma

Abram and Sarai and their slaves and their animals and their nephew, Lot, step by step, exited Egypt leaving a plague-worn palace in their wake. Their caravan had more than doubled in size since their arrival. The co-conspirators left in shame, but with full bellies and pockets. It was Egypt that was worse off. It was Egypt that suffered for their deceit.

Abram's exodus foreshadowed the Great Exodus when his grandson, Jacob, also fled to Egypt for the same reason, famine in the land. Jacob stayed long enough to plant deep roots and grew big, so big that the tribes formed by His twelve sons threatened Pharaoh who enslaved the whole lot of them for generations. Could slavery have been Egypt's revenge for Abram and Sarai's lie? Again, generations later, God used plagues to answer prayers for release from Egypt's grip on Sarai, then on her enslaved children. Pharaoh held on tight to the twelve tribes, until his firstborn son was found dead. The pain of that loss was so severe that writhing Pharaoh loosened his grip on Abram's nation of a family, losing all of his valuable human resources. His loss was overwhelming and Pharaoh had nothing to gain by their departure. His dead son could never return to Pharaoh's loving embrace. This first time Pharaoh, seeking relief from punishment, expelled them promptly and whole heartedly to satisfy the natural law that says a man's wife belongs to him alone.

Abram and Sarai walked away from Egypt without a word to rejoin them. They were not ready to tell each other of their experiences. Sarai relished her weeks in the palace and felt as if she was walking away from a dream. She was guilty of adultery, but hadn't Abram given her away? She had no choice but to give and to enjoy. The baths of milk and perfume long worn off, her lavender scent was replaced by her own sweaty stench. Sarai stayed silent for days, sometimes moping, sometimes weeping.

Nevertheless Abram was content to have her back. To empathize with her, he tried to imagine the contrast between palace life and the dusty road. The loud din of hundreds of shuffling footsteps of man and beast could not mask the sound of children laughing and fighting as they tried to keep up with the procession. Other people's children.

Suddenly Abram spotted the old altar he had built to the Lord when God first told him that his offspring would own the land.

"Sarai, look!" Called Abram breaking the silence. "Over there! Isn't that pile of rocks the same altar I built to the Lord when He gave us this land?! Let's go see!"

Glad for the interruption of her pouty thoughts Sarai trotted over to Abram as he approached the pile of stones. Looking at the altar brought back a flood of memories of the days before they ever met Pharaoh.

"Yes! This is the altar we built Abram. But we don't own even a cupful of land yet. See, we are still wandering as we did when your father made us leave Ur."

"Sarai, my dear" said Abram affectionately, "there is still time. I believe the Lord. Let's stay here, there is plenty of room." And to his nephew Lot he shouted, "Lot, come here. Tell them to set up their tents. Let's talk to the owner. Here is where I want to stay." With a stick and earth Abram mapped out his plan for a village. Food animals here, work animals there. Married slaves and their children here, and single slaves, men, and women separately quartered over there.

Closest to the altar facing east Abram and his wife Sarai pitched their own tent.

There, between Bethel and Ai where God first spoke to Abram, they rested and they prospered more and more, to the point that Abram's animals and Lot's animals could not coexist due to insufficient grazing land.

Lot moved his estate eastward to Jordan where the land was well watered like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.

[There] "The Lord said to Abram, after Lot moved away, "Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land that you see I will give you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring can also be counted. Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you." So Abram moved his tent, and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, (the Amorite brother of his allies Eschcol and Aner) which are at Hebron; and there he built [another] altar to the Lord." There Abram came to be known as a Hebrew, because he lived in Hebron.

There the people Abram owned continued to multiply exponentially as did his animals. He was surrounded by fertility while his wife remained barren. Often Abram looked around at all the children playing and shouting, and wondered where his countless offspring would come from. But never did he doubt what he heard. God's words rang true and sure in Abram's heart; there could be no doubt of their divine origin. Abram and God knew each other as much as any person can know another.

One day, when he least expected it, Abram experienced another vision from the Lord who read his heartfelt desire for a son. God said, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." But Abram said, "Oh Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus." And Abram said, you have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." But the word of the Lord came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." The he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." And Abram believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness."

Then He said to him, "I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess. But he said, "Oh Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it." He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." Abram brought the Lord all these things and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other, but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses he drove them away. Sarai did not question this strange collection of dead animals. She never heard the Lord speak, and she never spoke to Him.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, "know this for certain, that your offspring shall live in a land that is not theirs, and shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace, you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadomites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Jebusites."

Abram awoke clearheaded from that deep and eventful sleep which he remembered as real as day. Promises promises. Abram had been given quite a lot to think about. This time he heard that it wasn't during his lifetime that he would possess the land. And the news that his multitudinous offspring would be slaves was certainly very disappointing. Abram wasn't sure how much he should tell Sarai. Here he was a wealthy, childless old man, a squatter, to whom God said that would own the land, and then said it was through subsequent generations, over four hundred years to be exact, that this land would be his. One thing Abram knew for sure though was that this vision was from none other than God. He could have never made up such bad news.

Abram was the one moping all that day, and he slept restlessly that night, tossing and turning in his bed on the ground. He came to regard his life as a story that God was writing. He was merely the character. In his wakefulness Abram thought back on the story from his great grandfathers about the tree in the garden that God forbade the first man to eat. The tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. He decided that whether the events of his life were pleasing and joyful or whether they were painful and difficult, he should remain steadfast, even keeled, neither elated nor forlorn, but simply wait and glorify God in his heart. He must be patient, and let the events play out in the way that God dictated. Perhaps then he could please God and maintain his own sanity.

ALIVE: Chapter 30 - Deceitful Refugees

They were in!

Sarai had never been happier. The life of luxury was certainly something she enjoyed. After all the time spent on the dusty road, and all those years in tents Sarai was in a state of clean ecstasy. Her ladies-in-waiting bathed her daily in sweet warm perfumed water mixed with goats milk to keep her skin supple. The rest of the harem was a sisterhood of lovely ladies; even the first wife was happy to be relieved of her duties.

Sarai slept in the bed of Pharaoh many nights. He enjoyed her body, and she enjoyed his body. They made each other tingle and they liked that feeling. Even if they were able to speak the same language, there was not much to say, except Sarai was grateful for the luxury. She let him know by pleasing Pharaoh with every technique she could think of to do. Sarai was glad to bring such joy to her powerful benefactor. She wondered if she would bear his child, but she never conceived.

Abram was located nearby where he pitched his lonely tent. To keep him company, or to keep him busy, or to thank him for his entertaining sister, Pharaoh showered Abram with animals and male and female slaves. Abram became rich, he was rich in sheep, oxen, male donkeys, female donkeys and camels. He was given figs, olive oil, grain for bread, chickens galore, food enough for his animals and for his slaves. His slaves cooked for him and cleaned for him and cared for the animals. But for Abram the food and animals were losing their appeal. With belly full, his heart began to ache. He was in a bind. How could he get his wife back, and would she even want to return to him after experiencing life in the palace? Abram prayed.

Abram worked too. He realized that he had to keep busy to avoid thinking too much about Pharaoh and Sarai sleeping together. His nephew Lot was a good distraction. Lot and Abraham enjoyed each other's company. They played games; they told stories and jokes to each other.

Meanwhile, Perambula was extremely annoyed with Abram's immoral decision to give his wife to Pharaoh.

"Lord! Forgive me, but you cannot let this happen!"

"Let WHAT happen?" replied God with a knowing smile.

"Lord, You know as well as I do, that it is wrong wrong wrong for Abram's wife to be disloyal to her husband! He is her mate for life. It is through Sarai that you shall bless Abram and make a great nation come from his groin. Will you bless Abram with this whore of a wife! What if Sarai gets pregnant!"

"Calm down Perambula. Sarai will NOT get pregnant! You are being much too emotional. We will put an end to this, but first I want them to enjoy this rest."

"Lord, let's send them plagues to punish Pharaoh and his house for taking another man's wife? He is violating the laws of nature!"

"Perambula, let Me remind you that Pharaoh doesn't know that he has taken another man's wife. The only culprits here are Abram who is suffering loneliness and regret, and Sarai. "

God smiled condescendingly and added, "Besides Perambula my dear, I believe the laws of nature dictate that a man will take any woman he can to please him. What he violates is the moral code, but he doesn't know it, yet. Let's not be too critical of Pharaoh."

Perambula nodded and said, "So what should our plagues be?"

It wasn't long after that conversation between the Lord and His Angel Perambula that Pharaoh's palace went from being a sweet dreamland to a nightmare. First there were the rats. Hundreds of rats scurried around every room in the palace. The servants tried to kill them with bats but they were outnumbered. Then, disease-carrying mosquitoes swarmed in to feast on the people and many became ill with high fevers and rashes. Children came down with chickenpox. Life was a hot mess.

Meanwhile, Sarai was untouched. She neither suffered the mosquito bites, nor was phased by the rats. She continued to eat grapes and figs and she napped a lot in her big feather bed from which she was summoned less and less often. Pharaoh was much too preoccupied with one plague after another.

He came to notice that it was only within the walls of his palace that the plagues hit and it made him wonder why? What was different that his home should be singled out for such calamity?

One hot day Pharaoh mounted his fine Arabian horse and rode into the hills to get away and to think. It was on this ride that he realized that the only difference in his palace was his new wife Sarai. It was since she came that the plagues descended upon his home. With that thought Pharaoh immediately turned his steed around and rode like lightening back to the castle and right into Sarai's bedroom.

"Good afternoon sire! What grieves you my beloved?" she begged.

"Who ARE you!" bellowed Pharaoh angrily.

"You know who I am my dear. I am Sarai, your nymph." replied Sarai sheepishly understanding every word he said by the tone of voice.

"Have you deceived me? Are you NOT the sister of this Abram fellow? Tell me the truth now or I will have you beheaded!" He threatened.

"If you must know, I am the wife of Abram, but we were suffering from the famine in the land and we came as refugees to your magnificent palace. Please don't be angry, we were desperate, and you have been so kind and generous with us."

Pharaoh began to calm down looking upon this beauty, who indeed had given him so much pleasure. He suddenly remembered the long passionate nights and said to himself. 'Surely if her God treated me this way, I cannot harm her, or her husband for then I would reap even more disaster. Her God is only protecting her from me. I must release her, but with gifts so that my palace and my kingdom may be restored.' And out loud to Sarai he said, "Get dressed! I'm sending you back,"

So Pharaoh sent for Abram and through his interpreter said, " What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, "She is my sister?" so that I took her as my wife? Taker her and go!" Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent Abram away with his wife and all he had.

Perambula looking down on this angry scene smiling the biggest spirit smile ever. Sparkles of light radiated from Perambula in colors of red yellow and white.

Abram looked ashamed and felt elated. He was ready to exodus Egypt and he had his wife back. His God had answered his prayers; more proof of the reality of his invisible God. He went over to Sarai and took her trembling hand. He did not dare look into her eyes. He wasn't ready for that because she was as a foreigner to him. He neither knew how she felt about this expulsion from Egypt or how being the wife of Pharaoh had changed her. They walked hand in hand as strangers to each other slowly out of the palace followed by armed guards.

Pharaoh stood and watched them leave until their two figures could be seen no more. Now, thought Pharaoh, to see if he was right and that the plagues would be lifted. He knew he would miss his white skinned wife who had brought him such joy and such tragedy.

ALIVE: Chapter 29 The Big Lie

"I am so hungry! Aren't you Abram?" cried Sarai. "I feel so weak. I can't go another step."

"We are almost to Egypt. There is grain there, and soon we will make bread, and eat lamb stew with spices! Be patient my dear and be strong. God will not let us perish." Abram and Sarai bobbed up and down in syncopated rhythm on tall camels. Every day that went by with very little food made them weaker and more lethargic. Abram thanked God for the camels.

When Sarai stopped speaking, Abram thoughts turned to the future and how he could be noticed as a stranger worthy of Egyptian generosity. Sarai was right, they had moved frequently, but Egypt was different. Egypt was the big city. Certainly there would be food aplenty there brought in from the four corners of the world to feed Pharaoh. It occurred to Abram that the best place to get good food was right in Pharaoh's palace, but he wondered how he could get in. Fortunately Sarai's hunger kept her silent for a very long time. How could he, a pilgrim, attract Pharaoh's attention? What did he have that Pharaoh could possibly want?

Just as they were about to enter Egypt, the solution came to him, but he wondered how he would approach Sarai with his idea. They had known each other since they were children. There was nothing he wouldn't do for his lovely wife, and he was sure she felt the same way about him. Still Abram's thoughts were fixed on ways to tell her his plan, and he wondered if she was hungry enough to play along. Abram did not wonder what God thought about the idea.

He had to just say it, before it was too late. Timing was everything.

"Sarai."

"Yes my dear what is it?"

"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Even age has not diminished your elegance."

She replied, "That's kind of you to say, but I feel far from beautiful right now. I haven't even bathed in a month. I feel awful, hungry and dusty and awful."
Abram continued, "I am afraid that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, "This is his wife; then they will kill me, but they will let you live."

"Perish the thought my dear. If you believe that, then let's not go to Egypt! Let's go somewhere else! Surely we can find food back in Ur. Please let's go back to Ur!" she begged.

"The famine is there too my dear. Only in Egypt can we escape the famine. NO. But I have an idea."

"What idea?" She replied with deep curiosity.

Then Abram called up his courage and said very matter of factly, "Let's say that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account."

"Can you be serious my husband?! You know I have never known another man? How could we sustain this farce?"

"Let's think about that later, but for now we will find meat and a soft bed." Abram knew what mattered most to Sarai at that moment, and he knew also that this plan would only work when they first entered Egypt, while they were still strangers, still exotic pilgrims.

Perambula watched this scene in horror! "Lord, this plan is outrageous! How could this man care so much about his own belly that he would give his wife to satisfy it? "

The Lord shrugged his spirit shoulders and answered, "Time will tell."

Perambula replied, "Um Lord, Abram doesn't appear to be trusting you very much. Why did you pick this man? How in the world is a man who is willing to give his wife to Pharaoh to protect himself ...just for a good meal... how on earth is this disloyal man going to help us destroy death?"

God smiled.

Perambula added, "Don't look at me that way! I think you picked the wrong guy."

"Patience Perambula, and quiet!"

God knew that this flight was the first of three significant forays into Egypt where His chosen ones would find refuge.Their infidelity was simply a reoccurring theme that was humankind's natural distrust of God's care, just another of many infidelities God suffered from humankind. He was used to it and didn't expect more. Besides, He would not allow it to go on forever. How God longed for the day, that would certainly arrive, when His children would flee to Him rather than to Egypt. God knew that Abram was not unlike any other man He could have chosen.

Abram was particularly kind and loving to Sarai that evening. The next morning, rather than continue their journey at daybreak as usual, and despite their hunger, which had subsided on its own, they found a spring and washed themselves and their clothes. Sairai's hair was long and flowing; her milky white skin was unusual for that region and very beautiful. Her large blue eyes were clear and deep. Abram admired his lovely bride as if seeing her for the first time. Still, he didn't change his mind. Instead, he gave her time for the idea to settle.

"I wonder what it will be like inside a palace?" said Sarai softly. After so many weeks sleeping in a tent on the hard ground, Sarai was beginning to relish the idea of laying on a thick bed of feathers that she had only heard about, but never even seen. She figured that if her own husband didn't mind, then why should she.

"That's my girl! Are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready. Let's go."

When Sarai entered Egypt, two young Egyptian men saw the woman was very beautiful and ran to tell Pharaoh's palace guards about the strangers.

"Come, a new woman has entered our land! She is the most beautiful woman we have seen. Come, look!"

Two large swarthy and very muscular men, like happy puppies, rushed into the village square where Abram and Sarai and their entourage were trying to communicate with the locals.

The guards were stunned by Sarai's beauty, by her flawless milky-white skin and her flowing shiny black hair.

The smallest of the two spoke up first. "Pilgrims, from where do you travel? And to what do we owe the honor of your presence?" Of course the men were used to hungry refugees, but sensed that these two pilgrims were unusual.

Neither Abram nor Sarai spoke Egyptian. They looked at each other and then at the officials and guessing at their question Abram replied slowly and clearly in his foreign language,"My name is Abram and this is my sister Sarai. We have come originally from Ur, but most recently from Haran."

The officials looked at each other and again at Abram curiously. Then they interrupted Abram's introduction and called a man over and spoke to him in their language.

The interpreter joined them, listened, looked up at Abram and said, "Greetings, pilgrim. I too am from Ur. Welcome to our land. Please continue and I will translate your words."

Abram began to tell his lie again that Sarai was his sister, and continued, "As you may know there is famine in Haran, and we have come seeking relief lest we and our servants perish with hunger."

The translator quickly performed his service back and forth several times until it was decided that Abram and his beautiful sister should meet Pharaoh.

At the palace gates, Abram's servant and goods were asked to wait behind. A new palace official approached the couple and said, "Please allow Pharaoh to be the first to welcome you to our land. Follow me."

The moment they entered the palace building, Sarai looked around in awe. Never before had she seen such a large and ornate shelter. She marveled at the luxurious fabrics the women wore, sculptures and drawings everywhere, unusually dignified servants. A whisper inside Sarai's heart told her that she belonged there. Her beauty fit within the grandeur of the palace walls like a key opening its lock. She instantly felt at home and wanted nothing more than to be a part of this luxurious palace.

Pharaoh approach the two pilgrims in strong confident steps. When he drew near his eyes went immediately to Sarai's face and then, brushing down her curvy body paused briefly at her large firm breasts. Pharaoh then lifted his deep brown eyes to clasp onto Sarai's sea blue eyes which were wide open to receive him.

Then, Sarai recoiled a bit. It was all so intense; suddenly she felt timid, afraid to be viewed as an instrument of delight rather than Abram's wife whom she had always been. Sarai had never before experienced such flirtation and she wasn't quite sure she liked it, but she knew that she had to play along. Her stomach reminded her from time to time.

"Please, come, dine with me."said Pharaoh, and extended his arm to Sarai to lead her into the dining room.

Sarai was seated beside Pharaoh while Abram was seated between the interpreter and another stranger. Sarai was the only woman at the table, a jewel among rough stones.

Pharaoh's overtures to his wife irritated Abram, but he remained silent. Even after supper, when Pharaoh called for the woman in charge of his harem to escort Sarai to the ladies wing of the palace, Abram casually waved good bye.

ALIVE: Chapter 28 The Death Virus

ALIVE: Chapter 28 The Death Virus

Before I continue this tale about God's decision to destroy death instead of destroying life, as He did on a massive scale during the flood so He could be rid of evil, it occurred to me to again explain the word death and its origin. It can be confusing.

In the beginning Adam was made in the image and likeness of the all powerful, brilliant, and immortal God. He was given dominion over all the animals and living creatures. All of the laws of nature that we have today, we had then, the second law of thermodynamics, that copper conducts electricity, boiling point of water, the cycle of birth and death for animals and plants. Everything was the same except one thing.

Adam was born to be immortal because he and later his wife Eve, were two little replicas of the divine immortal God that He placed on His new planet earth. The death threat was not a farce. Not knowing good and evil, but being like God in every other way, Adam and Eve could not get sick and their bodies could not die.

Death has no substance. It is a virus that can only exist attached to a living organism. It is a parasite that has no form or breath of its own. God is pure life. Death cannot attach itself to God, because He is pure. He can't separate from Himself. Neither could death attach itself to Adam and Eve as long as they maintained their divine image, evidenced by their trust, and they stayed away from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Some people use the word "obey." They say Adam and Eve did not obey God's command. No, that's not what happened. The word "obey" has a dual connotation that is not accurate. "Trust" has a singular, unified, connotation which is more accurate. Adam and Eve did not disobey, they distrusted.

When Adam and Eve separated themselves from God, when they believed the serpent instead of God who said they would die if they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they created a breach, imagine a cut in your skin, into which the virus death could seep, latch on, and grow to feed on your life until it is entirely consumed. That is death. Some people call this cut "sin" because sin is nothing more than separation from God's will. Entering through their minds and hearts (i.e. their souls), death ultimately took over their entire bodies too. They died because they ate the fruit and they died because they believed the serpent's lie. They died because they distrusted (a separation) the source of pure life. Sin causes decay and disease which ends in death.

Eating the fruit placed them right smack in the middle of a tumultuous world where the combatting forces of good and evil tossed them to and fro. Sound familiar? Aren't we all as dizzy as can be in the middle of this world of good and evil? Would that good and evil existed without our knowledge of its fruit. Such ignorance would be blissful.

Adam and Eve were evicted from the one place in the world where God shielded them from the battling forces of good and evil. Adam and Eve immediately contracted the death virus. God did not lie to them. They immediately lost their immortality.

Distrusting God and knowing good and evil caused death. It still does. Spiritual death (i.e. sin) resulted in physical death for Adam and Eve and made death the result of a diseased sinful life for all human beings after them. Born divine humans, higher than animals, they fell to the level of animals who, being unlike God, were always vulnerable to the decay of nature.

God (and Perambula) knew that He had to destroy spiritual death, He had to close the breach created by distrust (I.e separation from God, i.e. sin), before physical death could be destroyed.

For God, to destroy death, now that mankind was aware of good and evil, and separated from Him in distrust required a long term and complex plan. It was a plan wherein humankind would know good and evil, like God, yet be reunited with Him in trust and love, hence they would be sinless. This reunion could repel the virus death and restore the image of divinity which is immortal. That was how God planned to destroy death. What a challenge God and Perambula had before them.

"Okay, can we please get back to the story of Abram?" whined Perambula. "I want to know what happens to him!"

ALIVE: Chapter 27 Destroying Death, Step One

Perambula and God continued to think about how they (to this day Perambula still takes credit for helping God destroy death) would reunite humankind with God in love and trust. Perambula understood why perfect-trust was the powerful weapon in the war to reverse the effects of the serpent's vile trick. What Perambula did not understand was how difficult it would be to achieve for humans who knew both good and evil. Having been as repulsed as God by the massive death caused by the flood, Perambula looked forward to a world with no death at all.

Because God likes the number nine for its magical characteristics and because He is so patient, He and Perambula waited for the ninth generation after the watershed moment in history, the flood, to get started.

Perambula was not so patient because even for an angel nine generations, 290 years to be exact, was a long time to wait; it's not that they were twiddling their spirit thumbs the whole time; God and Perambula were busy doing whatever they do in heaven, but it was important for God who adores symbolism and numbers that He select a person of the ninth generation of Shem to shift His death-destroying project into full gear.

In those days, as in these days, most men became fathers at around thirty years of age. But for what is probably a good reason, Terah was the exception. Terah, the son of Nahor was 70 years old when he became the father of Abram, the ninth generation son of Shem. Abram did not choose God. God chose Abram.

"Are you sure, you can hear God speak to you Abram? How can you be so sure?" questioned Sarai his wife. "Why does He wants us to move again? We have barely settled in Haran and now you are telling me to leave! What about my friends?"

"Sarai, I can't explain it. I just know. Ever since my father died, I have had this uncomfortable feeling that we don't belong in Haran. The only reason father forced us to leave Ur was because my brother Haran died. Don't you remember how he grieved?

"Yes! I remember." replied Sarai solemnly.

"He had to leave Ur. Everything there reminded him of Haran. So he determined to go to Canaan, but when we reached the town of Haran, he was so surprised. Here he found a place that could make him feel closer to our brother, but at the same time new, so we stayed here. But now that father has passed, we must leave. I know it."

"I wish we had stayed in Ur with Nahor and Milcah. I don't mind leaving Haran, but why don't we go back to Ur where we have family. We can take Lot back to his sister and brother."

"Sarai, trust me. The Lord God who spoke to Noah, has told me to take you and Lot and my possessions and go to the land of Canaan, where father intended to go before we stopped in Haran. Let's continue father's journey to Canaan and see what God has in store for us. He told me this morning that He would make of me a great nation, He will bless me, and make my name great, so that I will bless others."

Sarai looked at her husband with curiosity and a touch of skepticism. She knew she had no choice but to obey.

"Sarai, you should have heard Him." added Abram with growing enthusiasm, "It was as clear as morning light. God said to me, "I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Sarai started packing. Young Lot helped, and so did the servants they acquired who had to go with them. It wasn't long before the entourage of people and animals and carts of household goods, like the wagon train of the future, slowly, step by step made its ways through dry rocky ground to the land of Canaan, named after the son of Ham whom Noah cursed for embarrassing him.

Abram rode his camel at the head of the train. When he stopped everyone stopped. When he started to walk again, everyone picked up their loads and started walking. Abram did not chatter as did the others. He tried to maintain a heightened state of awareness in case God were to speak to him again. In fact Abram insisted that the people follow at a good distance behind him.

Seventy-five year old Abram felt as strong as he did at forty, but when the sun was hottest overhead he had compassion on the people and on the animals and stopped for water, and shade where it could be found to rest every living being.

One day, while cooling off under Moreh's oak tree a in Shechem the Lord God spoke again to Abram. In a small voice in his heart, he heard, "Look around you Abram, To your offspring I will give this land."

Abram looked around at the mountains and valleys, at houses and tents, at people walking and resting, and then he looked a few feet behind him where Sarai was chatting happily with her servants. Sarai had yet to bear children and both of them were getting old. His age did not bother Abram since he too was born to a 70 year old man, but neither did he concern himself with Sarai's age even though their peers had grandchildren already. Abram believed the Lord and decided to mark the place where God had given his unborn children the land of Canaan.

"What are doing Abram?" asked Sarai. "Don't you think it is time to head out before the sun sets?"

"Come Sarai, help me build this altar. Pick up that rock over there and bring it to me. God told me that our children will own this land someday. I believe Him; I want to mark the spot, clam my ground."

Sarai felt that she had been traveling her entire life. The thought of owning land was inconceivable to her. She wondered if Abram had become delusional, but she knew enough to keep silent and ferry rocks to her husband. By the time the altar was complete, night had fallen. Abram took Sarai's hand and together they looked up at the sky dense with stars. Abram felt blessed; he loved God whom he could not see, but what he could see, the tiniest intricate wildflower amidst dry dusty rocks amidst majestic mountains was for Abram a sign that pointed to a creator, to the Creator who spoke to him. Sarai loved her husband for his vigor and innocence. How could a man so old be so naive she wondered as she let go of his hand, gave him a peck on the cheek and said, "I am going to fix up our bed in the tent. Let's go to sleep; okay? Tomorrow will be another long day on the road."

Perambula watched this scene and could tell that Abram was unique for his ability to believe something that he couldn't see or touch. Perambula wondered what it was like to not be able to see God.

In the world where mankind daily eats of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, there is only one road back to immortality and that is the road travelled in blind faith and trust. Like the tree of life planted in the Garden of Eden that is surrounded by twirling flames lest anyone reach it, this road of faith is strewn with land mines, tests so tough, and often so illogical, that only the genuine survive. Abram was the first man after the flood to be ushered onto this road to eternal life.

ALIVE: Chapter 26 God on a Mission: Destroy Death

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said let there be light; and there was light."

Out of darkness and void burst forth light and matter. God created the opposite of what always existed in projecting out from Himself to make our life-filled planet. Light to destroy darkness, matter to fill the void. Opposites obliterate. But how, thought God, could He best destroy death?

"I know, I know!" exclaimed Perambula the angel, to God. "Why don't you destroy death with its opposite?!"

A fatherly smile illuminated God's spirit face, and He replied, "Perfect! What is the opposite of death Perambula?"

"Life, of course!" chirped the cheerful angel.

"Not so," replied the all-knowing God. "It's a little more complicated than that. You are correct to say we can destroy death with its opposite though. Try again. What is the opposite of death?"

The little angel's countenance fell gently as Perambula tried to figure out what the opposite of death could be if it wasn't life. "After all," whined the angel, "a dead animal is still, and a live one is active...and stillness and activity are opposite." It was difficult for Perambula to get past that image. God waited patiently for Perambula to understand.

When He could tell that the angel's thoughts were leading nowhere, to help, He said, "Well then, what is life, besides activity?" God waited for several more moments while Perambula thought.

Finally, He heard Perambula say proudly, "My Lord, You are life, because life came from You! Everything that lives and breathes, the idea of all those processes and the colors and shapes and textures, the science of breathing and seeing, everything was generated in Your amazing mind. So, I would have to say that you define and personify Life. Is that right?"

God loved Perambula for the angel's cheerfulness and intelligence. "Correct! But because I AM life, I cannot annihilate death. This is why life is not the opposite of death. It was easy enough to make it rain for forty days, to drown the world and everything in it, or even to open the earth with quakes to swallow my enemies. I can destroy life, but death I cannot destroy."

Perambula's spirit smile broadened as the angel's face illuminated until God added, "Why are you so happy Perambula, we still haven't answered the question? What is the opposite of death, that it may be obliterated. We need to know." Of course God knew the answer but nevertheless enjoyed this conversation.

The more Perambula thought about it, the more the angel could tell how difficult the mission would be to destroy death. Perambula thought, "If God is life, and life cannot destroy death, then what is death?" Perambula decided to go back to the birth of death and try to tackle the problem from there.

Reading Parambula's angelic mind, God bellowed His first and most famous command, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."

Parambula's baby blue angel eyes grew as big as they could possibly get! "Were you going to kill the man if he ate the fruit?"

"NO! Of course not. I had just created him, why would I kill him? I never said I would kill him, I said he would die."

Parambula had not been in the celestial neighborhood of earth in those days and so this story of the birth of death was brand new. "So, did he eat it and die?"

God's sighed and replied, "Yes, his wife that I made for him as a helper as his partner was deceived by a snake into thinking that I lied to the man. The snake told her that the opposite would happen and that if she ate the fruit, her eyes would be opened, and she would be like Me knowing good and evil."

"Lord?"

"Yes Parambula?"

"I thought you told us that you made the man in your image and likeness."

"Yes Parambula, I did."

"Well then, the man and his wife were already like you."

God added, "Except that they didn't know the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. They still don't."

"Well, did they die?"

"Yes, immediately', replied God, "just as I warned them."

"Did their hearts stop beating and did they stop breathing?" Asked Perambula who was by now most curious about death.

"Oh no!" replied God to Perambula's relief. "Their bodies continued to function for almost a thousand years and would have never stopped because I created man to have dominion over nature. Adam's body would have lasted for eternity because it could know no illness or deterioration, until it died, when it fell under the power of nature."

"Then what caused death since You didn't kill them?"

"Their distrust gave birth to their death, not even their doubt, but acting on the seed of doubt planted by the serpent caused them to eat the fruit which proved that the woman, and then the man had separated themselves from me. Death was self inflicted. It was the result of distrust, a by product, not a force of itself. They didn't love me, nor trust in my love for them. Psychologically they floated farther and farther from my presence. As you said, I am life. So by opposing me with their distrust they died immediately." God paused and peered deeply into the radiant eyes of Perambula, "now can you see what death is?"

Perambula hesitated and said in a small gentle voice, "Is the opposite of life to distrust you? Is love which implies trust, the opposite of death?"

"YES!" exclaimed God with gusto! "The opposite of death is love (trust)."

"So, all we have to do, to destroy death is to make everyone trust you! Yippee!" Perambula's cheer return.

God enjoyed the moment with Perambula before adding, "At this point, that is nearly impossible. Since that first day mankind has been feasting on the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, day in and day out. To regain the loss of trust, and to have proof that it is lasting may take thousands of years. Besides through man death was born, only through man can it be destroyed." God seemed somber and pensive.

Perambula cheerfully replied, "Well than let's get started!"

ALIVE: Chapter 25 - Transition to Trust

Last week, I sat in an auditorium in Europe with hundreds of other people who, like me, wore headsets. The illustrious speaker was answering questions from the audience. Inside our covered ears were heard the responses in the language each person could understand.

The story of the origin of many languages from the one language spoken by Noah, Shem, Japheth, Ham and the womenfolk to their children and grandchildren is a story about God's reaction to a construction project.

It began with bricks.

Smart men figured out how to take clay from the earth and bake it to make a very strong brick that could be stacked using bitumen for mortar. No longer did they need to dig up stones to make walls. The invention of brick inspired all sorts of creativity. Industrious people were not satisfied simply to keep the rain out; they wanted to build a tower so high that it reached heaven and would be the focal point of a city full of buildings. With such a tower they could make a name for themselves lest they be 'scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth,' anonymous and forgotten.

The Lord heard about the project from His angels and came down to take a look. After glancing at the brick walls, He peered into the hearts of the builders, saw their pride and didn't like it at all. "This project," thought God, "must be stopped."

To the Angels He said, "Look they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

That is how God and His angels foiled the tower project. As quick as lightening flashed across the sky, and just as shocking, the builders began speaking in different languages. One man could not understand the other; neither, "Hand me that brick." nor, "What's for lunch?" A seed of surprised confusion grew into a mighty tornado that ripped through the city. Chaos ensued.

Thousands of years later, in an upper room during the feast of Pentecost, God reverse this phenomenon. There, people of different languages suddenly could understand each other. With the same miraculous power that God used to confuse men's language, on Pentecost God reversed the scene at the Tower of Babel. On Pentecost, God displaced many egos with His one Holy Spirit.

On Pentecost, uniting people with the Holy Spirit of God was just as important as dispersing prideful egotists had been at the construction scene of the Tower of Babel.

As planned, the people who suddenly spoke different languages became too frustrated with each other and abandoned the tower project. They took their families and moved to places that became Germany, England, Greece, China, and Spain.

Having successfully thwarted the construction project, God looked down upon humankind with its good and evil ways, and thought more about His decision to destroy death. His plan would have to be very well developed and it would take a long time.

"Death" thought God, "is separation. It is separation from My image and likeness and it is separation from My Will. It is separation of the body and the spirit, it is separation of loved ones and enemies from each other."

The angel asked,"Did the scattered people of different languages die?"

"In a sense," replied God, "they died to each other. Their many languages represent their many egos, however, the separation of the first death was and continues to be caused by ego-born distrust. During Pentecost the many egos melted into one Spirit with one spiritual language."

God paused to see if the angel understood, then continued, "Death started the moment Eve ate the forbidden fruit. She committed suicide by distrusting Me. Her distrust was the seed of death."

The angel blurted, "I've got it! To destroy death simply reverse the cause! Make people trust You. Bingo! Done!"

God replied, "I cannot make people trust me; they have free will. I didn't want to make puppets when I created humankind. I wanted friends. First the people must recognize me without seeing me, then they must be tested."

The angel chimed in, "Lord, does anyone even know you exist anymore? We are back where we started before the flood. What a waste!"

"No, no, no. It was not a waste. Future generations will learn about the flood and reconstruct it. They will baptize, they will fast, they will understand rebirth and mercy. The flood had to happen. You know that angel; why are you being so contrary?!"

"I think I'm being realistic my Lord. You are invisible to them."

"Be quiet," replied God to the angel. "I need to think."

ALIVE: Chapter 24 Circle Back to Meaning -Rainbow's End

And so the story of the most alive man of his time, Noah, comes to end. The rainbow that God places in the sky is to remind Himself and humankind that no matter how filled with evil the world becomes, He will not ever again destroy life... by water.

Because the earth endured only one death and rebirth (i.e. baptism) by flood, so too a person must only be baptized once. Jesus Christ mandated one baptism to place each of us, one at a time, in Noah's ark of salvation. He said, "Unless a person be born of water and the spirit (s)he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." The spirit of mercy that the olive branch proclaimed after the ordeal, is poured over humankind through the ages.

When using the word 'salvation', let's keep in mind the image of Noah's ark tossed around a storm-swept sea surrounded by the drowned and drowning, to be clear of what we mean.

Baptism recreates the primal condition of water and darkness that preceded creation. The earth's baptism by flood, and the person's baptism by water equally lead to rebirths, necessary rebirths. A person must be born again, because the earth was born again. The second birth is the validated birth. In the Gospel of John, it is written, "but to as many as receive Christ He gives the right to become children of God who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but [of the will] of God." God willed the rebirth of His creation, and He wills the rebirth of every human into a being who will never die.

During the devastating flood, bodiless God saw the carnage and felt remorse. Was that the moment He decided to take on flesh, so He could experience for Himself the pain and suffering He had inflicted on His human creation? Was it during the deadly devastating flood that God decided that rather than destroy life, He must destroy death?

God had suffered the knowledge of evil and wickedness long enough, the reason for His decision to obliterate it on the earth, but seeing death on such a grand scale He understood as never before what a tragedy is death, and how essential it was to destroy it once and for all.

Having reversed Creation by rejoining the waters above the firmament with the waters below the firmament, His sorrowful desire was to rejoin Himself with fallen humanity. He wanted to be made in human image and likeness. Full circle. Only then, thought God, could He go to the receptacle of death, Hades, and annihilate it.

The roadmap to Golgotha was drawn during the flood. There would after that be the third and final Creation, which will last forever. As we leave Noah, let's not ever drift too far from what this experience taught us. To do so would be to be a helium balloon released from the hand of God and going nowhere.

ALIVE: Chapter 23 Circle Back to Meaning - Mercy

Κύριε ελέησον. Kyrie Eleison. Lord, have mercy.

It seems ironic to associate Noah's ark experience with mercy. After all, there was no mercy whatsoever for the multitude of people and wildlife that were destroyed in the flood. And yet Noah's story is where the powerful symbol of mercy originated.

The Greek word for mercy, ελέησον, is literally from the root word, ειλλια - olive, referring to the olive leaf. The symbol of the dove returning with an olive leaf in its beak meant to Noah's family that the end of their travail was near. Words can never adequately express the relief and gratitude the family felt when after living through the annihilation of everyone and everything they knew, followed by an extraordinarily difficult year at sea, this olive leaf was delivered to show them that their new life was finally about to begin. Oh joy! Thank you God for your kindness, your benevolence, for your forgiveness and the tremendous relief you bring us.

The dove, albeit this specific dove, had come to symbolize the Holy Spirit of God in art as a solution to the problem of how to depict an invisible Spirit-Being. For Noah's family the olive branch was delivered by God Himself via the dove, therefore the Dove is God. For God, the delivery was an opportunity to show this bedraggled family His kindness. From then on to this day, we humans all seek and are grateful for such generosity of heart from God. Mercy for some of us is relief from suffering, for others it means gladness for a new life. For Noah's family it was both.

I doubt that as we ask God for mercy, we are as desperate for it, or as grateful for it as Noah's family was that day. Yet, how beneficial to our souls would it be that when we say, 'Lord, have mercy.' if only for a split second, we could hearken back to think of the olive branch and realize in its fullness for what we are asking.

Because most of us ask for mercy, instead of an olive branch, (Lord give me an olive branch) let's realize that the word, mercy, evolved from the French word for thanks, merci. Thank you God for your benevolence, kindness, and forgiveness. We have already been given that for which we ask, and so by asking for mercy, we are thanking God already.

In William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice when Portia asks Shylock to show mercy, he replies, "On what compulsion, must I?"

She responds:
The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

Which echoes the circular virtue of mercy as expressed by Jesus in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy." Matthew 5:7

By asking for mercy, you are given mercy. By giving mercy, you receive mercy.

The concept of mercy, either receiving or giving should never be divorced from our collective ancestral memory of the day the dove announced the end of days of bitterness and struggle and the advent of a new, holy life, and of our ancestor's gratitude to God for this second chance.

Yet, not gratitude but the olive best describes the significance of the dove with olive branch. Both East and West use the original Greek, Κύριε ελέησον. Kyrie Eleison. Lord give me olive branch. Thanks! May I suggest that in prayer, we use the Greek Κύριε ελέησον (Kyrie Eleison), more often than the English, Lord have mercy. The Greek has more meaning, and it will help us to hearken back to the powerful origin of the request.

Olive oil is sacred because it was the medium through which the Spirit of God delivered the good news of relief and the beginning of the new world to Noah's family. Olive oil simultaneously symbolizes the Spirit of God and the mercy of God. The dove and its olive branch merge as one symbol of God's kindness to Noah's family and by extension to all of us who are conscious of being in this Ark of Salvation (the Church) with all of its trials and tribulations and wanting finally to land in the new world that God is preparing for us.

The olive branch is the first of many significant references to the sacred olive and its oil. In Exodus 27:20 it is written: "You shall further command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, so that a lamp may be set up to burn regularly. In the tent of meeting outside the curtain that is before the covenant, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a perpetual ordinance to be observed throughout their generations by the Israelites." The light that the olive oil gives off is by extension from the dove with its olive branch, the light of the Spirit of God.

To confirm this interpretation through Biblical text, it was olive oil that Samuel used to anoint King Saul and King David that they may be saturated by the Spirit of God through which they would lead God's people Israel.

Another significant reference is found in Zechariah 4 whose vision describes two olive trees continuously pouring oil into seven lamps which are described as, "...the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."

So it is throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, references to olive oil include the rich meaning of the Spirit of God and the kindness and relief, and the new world He offers us, the message God delivered by the dove to Noah and his family.

The concept of mercy and the Spirit of the Lord emanate from the Dove with the olive branch in its beak and infiltrate our world from ages to the coming age. Lord have olive branch, Lord merci for the olive branch.

Κύριε ελέησον. Kyrie Eleison. Lord, have mercy.

Be aware, stay ALIVE.

Alive: Chapter 22 - Circle Back to Meaning - Food Power

Noah and his family had to store enough food in the ark to keep them alive for an undetermined period of time after the 40 days of rain. Who knew how long it would be before they could grow food even after landing? They also needed enough food for the animals.

Before the flood, at Creation, God said to Adam and Eve, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." Man and animal alike were vegan. I imagine that they stored plenty of nuts, and dried fruit on the ark. It wasn't until they landed with very little food left and no time to wait for the planting cycle did God suggest that they eat the animals. Such a notion terrified them and repulsed them, but they had no choice.

Lazaria, the most sensitive and spiritual of the group, was only able to eat meat when she thought that the animal would continue to live through her. Otherwise, she couldn't do it. She would die before killing an animal for food. Our diet informs the way we perceive life, how we relate to nature, and it informs our thoughts and behavior.

Food is medicine. What we take into our mouths finds its way to every cell, even into our minds and our hearts, the center of our psyches which are not physical. The properties of drugs, legal or recreational, clearly show the effect of what goes into our mouths in an exaggerated way. Even though controlling what comes out of our mouth is more important to our spiritual wellbeing than what goes in, nevertheless controlling what goes in makes a difference in who we are. Everything that goes into our mouths, and how we decide what to put in, affect us subtly but distinctly. Hunger is not always bad. Hunger when fasting strengthens us when it is a result of our will to master ourselves, rather than continuously giving in to every little desire. This exercise of the will, which is willing and able to endure hunger pangs, becomes strong enough to fight evil and win. It is strong enough to resist the devil, and to obey God. No matter what.

It is a good spiritual exercise to replicate the eating regimen of life in the ark of salvation, during the forty day period of Great Lent. Let Lent call you into the ark of salvation.

During the 40 days of Great Lent the Church invites us in more often, into its buildings and into its sacred world, even when we are home. A key aspect of being in the ark is eating as they did. No meat, not even dairy products, because there was no mention of that. Surely, in the ark, the chickens and cows stopped producing. Eat sparingly and only what Noah and his family could eat. See what that does for your soul.
To eat as if you and I were in the ark is to evolve spiritually as did Noah and his family.

To use a different standard when deciding what goes into our mouths, a standard given to us by the Church, is to humble ourselves. We adults rarely have such an opportunity to voluntarily place ourselves under the care and guidance of a spiritual parent. Grab the opportunity Great Lent offers, by fasting as the Church prescribes. Use fasting as a tool to open your heart and mind so that you may perceive more clearly the spirit world around you.

Change of diet through fasting and abstinence helps to change the mind and heart. It helps us to be aware that we are in the period of Great Lent; to be aware of being in a separate place in time. When it comes down to it, we have to wonder how any food, be it steak or ice cream could possibly surpass the value of such spiritual awareness.

Besides, resisting forbidden fruit is a good way to show God that unlike Adam and Eve, we could resist eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that we are worthy of a do-over.

ALIVE: Chapter 21 - Circle Back to Meaning - Sudden Death

Another important lesson that The Flood Story taught us was the same lesson that Jesus and ISIS have also taught us. Be ready for sudden death. The warnings have been sent out loud and clear, and repeatedly. Things change, and sometimes they change fast.

"Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, 'Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise replied, 'No! There will not be enough for you and us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' And while they went to buy oil, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I do not know you.' Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." Matthew 25:1-14

We don't know how many people lived on earth when the Flood came and devastated them all. We must assume that although evil and wickedness was rampant, as it is in this day, we would not have considered everything to be purely evil. Surely there was a measure of love for children or spouses. Surely there existed random acts of kindness for the weak, or the neighbor. God made humans in His image and likeness, and God is love. So even the most vulgar human contains within him or herself the seed of love. Surely not everyone in that world would have been condemned to death by me or you if we had been God in the days of the Flood. The wives all had relatives that they left behind. They must have grieved terribly over those deaths.

We must accept that God despises evil so much that, at the time of the Flood, He was willing to destroy everything and every one, down to the last puppy in order to be rid of evil, and to start anew.

When terrorists do their dirty deeds for whatever reasons, they do not carefully select who they determine deserves to be murdered. Their murderous instincts are dispersed suddenly, indiscriminately, and without trial. While the soul of the suicide bomber plummets into a place of eternal anguish, his victim may be experiencing a calm, peaceful, and blissful state unknown before that tragic moment. This scene is as invisible as cyberspace, but as real.

Accidental deaths come suddenly too. Anyone who has lost a loved one by accidental death knows how fast the world can spin.

Jesus warned us to 'Be Ready.' The terrorists have also warned us to 'Be Ready' by the randomness of their dastardly deeds. Secret agents and investigators, the military, and all those charged to protect us have and will continue to reduce our risk of sudden death, but no one can guarantee it will not happen. We can reduce the number of accidental deaths with safety measures, but we cannot prevent all such deaths.

A person who dies suddenly may not suffer at all, certainly not as much as those beloved (s)he left behind. The soul of a person which has been torn from its body may go to experience a foretaste of bliss, or of punishment depending on their first judgement. Ancient Christian theology teaches that on the way to its resting place, the soul will be accused by demons at a trial, and that angels and saints, and family and friends will testify on the soul's behalf before the determination is made as to where the person will go.

When Jesus returns at the end of this age, and He ushers in the new age of immortality from 'whence all sickness, sorrow and sighing have fled away' when He will judge the living and the dead (for the second and final time), believe it or not, the victorious will discover a life that is more pure and stable, free from any threat, than we can ever imagine.

You see; we live in a dangerous, constantly changing world. The only true security we have is what we provide for ourselves. Call it oil for our lamps, or call it a real relationship with our life giver whose voice we recognize and who knows us down to the count of every hair on our heads, but for children of God, if evil robs us of our bodies with its breath and beat, we will simply be given a new indestructible body someday that will last forever and ever. Evil will not win, except for those who surrender to it, either intentionally or by neglect.

One lesson of the Flood is found in the clear and tragic picture that it paints of those few who were in the Ark, contrasted by those many who were not. Although Noah was chosen among men to build the ark and to live through the catastrophe of the Flood, his family, especially the wives of his sons were simply lucky. Yet, the process changed them all.

Sudden death is not necessarily avoidable, so be prepared. And if you are lucky enough to live a long and healthy life, use it to prepare for the age to come.

Does the concept of sudden death make you feel uncomfortable? I know.

It's about separation. We don't want to leave our friends or family, our homes and towns, our countries and everything familiar. The great unknown is frightening. And yet, death, sudden or not, is inevitable. All the more reason to make God, Jesus, the angels and saints, an integral part of our social network because they will be the ones who will greet us on the day we pass from this earth. Follow Christ.

The Church is the Ark of our world, with its doors wide open to receive and protect us, rather than shut tight to keep us out, that is until the day the Bridegroom comes (again), and the wedding feast begins, when the doors of the Ark-Church too will be shut tight, and we can no longer enter. Sudden death. Forever.

ALIVE: Chapter 20 - Circle Back to Meaning - 40 days

As I circle back to the meaning of the Flood, the fact that God told Noah that it would rain for exactly 40 days, as it did, I notice that this was the very first, and the first of three, phenomenal 40 day periods in history.

It took 40 days of rain to wipe out life in the Flood. Moses visited with God on the mountaintop for 40 days, during which time he transcribed Genesis and received the Ten Commandments. In the third phenomenal 40 day period, Jesus fled to the desert after being baptized by John to prepare for His ministry and kickstart His mission to restore the God:man relationship and consequently immortality to humankind.

It takes 365 days for the earth to completely revolve around the sun, but it took only forty days, five weeks plus five days of time on three separate occasions for God to construct a solid stairway to heaven with three landings of time for humanity to catch up.

Noah. On the first 40-day stairway God gradually and systematically erased that which He created.

Moses. On the second set of risers, God introduced Himself to a man. The meeting was long and specific. He wanted to tell mankind, through this man Moses, what He was like, so mankind could consciously and willingly maintain His image and likeness.

With the first forty days God erased, with the second He drew a clear outline of what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God. God chose Israel's big family to be the Control Group. Having decided not to erase by flood again, evil and wickedness in humankind would be fought with the will of man subjecting itself, one person at a time, to the will of God in a deliberate, conscious, and knowing way.

Jesus. God Himself came to earth, fully God and also fully human, to apply to the whole from the Control Group (the Jews) the principles of combatting evil and wickedness with the individual's own yielded will and desire.

As with Moses, God-Jesus convened for forty days of testing by Satan who repeatedly tempted Jesus to misalign His human will to the divine will of God the Father. The stakes were the highest. Satan failed.

God, as Jesus, was to not just tell humankind what He was like, and thus how to be like Him, but He was to be the model for the perfect man that God intended mankind to be.

For three 40-day periods, God painstakingly helped humankind to be what He intended in the beginning. God wanted sons and daughters, but exactly because mankind is like him, intelligent, creative, and emotional, and willful, it would take a slow gradual, but more thorough, process to receive true children of God. No hurry. He has time.

Lent. To extract the most from the forty day Lenten period, a person should consciously and deliberately climb these stairs.

1. Erase evil from your world by avoiding or ignoring it. See Lent as a fresh start. The Noah steps.
2. Learn. Read whatever you can that teaches you the Will of God. The Moses steps.
3. Practice overcoming the temptation to misalign your will with God's Will. The Jesus Christ steps.

What doesn't matter: The color of our skin, our earthly achievements, our wealth or poverty, or our health, our education or our talents, our social network, none of these worldly aspects of a person matter one whit to God.

What matters. Our willingness to obey God's commands, and to conform to the image of Christ, our Model.

Forty days is only a brief period of time, five weeks and five days, but as history has shown, it can be a most unique and meaningful period.