Reading 7 | The Bible in 100 Passages

Saturday, September 20, 2025  

Today's Scripture
Genesis 12:1–9

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 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.”

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb. (NRSVUE)

Reflection

When God called Abram to pack up his whole life and leave his father’s house, God was inviting him into a new beginning. It was a beginning filled with potential and promise, but also with a great deal of uncertainty. Abram didn’t know where he was going or when he would get there, only that God would lead him.

New beginnings often come with that tension between burden and blessing. For me, the most poignant example is beginning life as a mother.

Motherhood is an incredible blessing, one I spent many years hoping and dreaming and praying for. It has filled my life with moments of joy, love, and a deep sense of purpose. Helping my boys grow, learn, and become their own people is incredibly rewarding. It is also an incredible burden. It demands constant sacrifice of time, energy, money, and personal space. It brings sleepless nights, a lot of germs, and the weight of two little boys being totally dependent on me and my husband for everything. Some days are undeniably more burden than blessing.

When I embarked on this new beginning as a mother, there were no guarantees. There was no guarantee my first pregnancy would make it to term or that my baby boy would be healthy. There was no guarantee we’d be able to find childcare we could afford. There was no guarantee he’d be excited to have a little brother. And that’s the way it will always be. I don’t have any guarantees about how things will turn out. What I do have is the same thing Abram did when he left his country — a promise that God will walk with me.

Prayer

Creator of new beginnings, when it’s easier to see the burden than the blessing, may I remember that you never told Abram it would be easy. You told him it would be worth it. May it be so for me. Amen. 

Written by Nicole Spirgen, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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