TRUST ME

Genesis 22:1-19; Ps 115 I will walk in the presence of the Lord, in the land of the living; Matthew 9:1-8

Trust Me!

How often have we spoke these words to others in our life?   How often have we been on the receiving end of this call?

Trust Me!

There are moments because of the relationship we have developed with certain people in our life that trust becomes effortless.  There are moments where it is a struggle.  It challenges us.  Especially so when our understanding fails to grasp the full impact of the circumstance or the event.

When we are asked to "blindly" go forth or proceed that is when we are asked to trust the vision of the other even when we don't see what they see.

Trust Me!

We encounter this later reality in today's first reading.  Abraham has just heard those words from God, "Trust Me!" as he has been asked to take his only begotten son, the one you love, and go to the land of Moriah.  There you shall offer him up as a burnt offering on the height that i will point out to you."

Let that settle in your heart for a change.  Think about the heart racing and pounding in the chest of Abraham as he discerns this course of action.  Perhaps sweat beads form on his brow.  Maybe his head begins to spin as he tries to grasp the full impact of what God has asked.

Many of us have experienced similar moments.  When we have been asked to let go of someone whom we love.
Different but also the same in many ways.

Staring over a death bed of a loved one.  Looking out on a crash sight or upon the wreckage of loved one who has been injured or killed.  Losing a job and unsure of where tomorrow will lead.

There are terrible moments in life when nothing makes sense and we have not a clue as to how to proceed-and yet we trust.  Perhaps real trust in God can only happen when we are bereft of understanding.

Trust me!

Isaac also must trust as well.  He is probably a teenager at this point.  He is complicit in the event.  He has carried the wood.  He has set up the altar.  He who could easily out muscle his aging father, lays quietly and still upon the altar of sacrifice.  Trust Me!

Trust in God is never in isolation.  It is never an individual experience. Trust in God involves the whole family.  When one makes an act of Trust it filters down and impacts the lives of all.

This is important to remember.  Trust is a family virtue.  The way we trust prepares our sons and daughters to learn to trust as well.  Isaac learns trust from his Father.

All of us, as we read the story of Abraham and Isaac, we too must hear the call, "Trust me."  We too are now complicit in the event, in the course of action as it unfolds.  We too learn something of Trust as we watch.

Trust me!

Yahweh-Yireh: God will see it through becomes the name of the place on the mountain where Abraham, Isaac and all of us learn trust.  It remains the sacred place where trust is engendered in all of our lives daily.

Trust me!  I will see it through.  These are the words of a loving Father.