Original Blessing

Genesis 12:1-4a

Our study group had an in-depth conversation about original sin vs. original blessing. We had watched a video presentation which introduced the idea (or fact, depending on how you receive it) that Jesus, his followers, and the earliest Christians practiced, studied, and lived the Jewish faith. The point was also made that the idea of original sin was developed much later in the early 5th Century. Therefore, neither Jesus, his followers, nor the earliest Christians would have any idea about the concept of original sin.

Instead, Judaism teaches the concept of original blessing; the idea which is set forth in today's passage. Original blessing begins when God calls Abram (aka Abraham) to leave his land and go to a strange place. In that place God promises God will bless Abram by ensuring that through him and his families a great nation will come.

The covenant between God and Abram goes on to promise a great number of descendants and as much land as is needed to ensure the prosperity of that great nation. In other words, God will always be with them and as long as Abram and his descendants remember God they will have nothing but a good life.

I'm not sure about you, but I would rather live a life where I am blessed with greatness the moment I'm born instead of a life where I have to earn that blessing by finding a way to lose my sinful ways.

In this time of Lent I am taking a look at my inner-relationship - my relationship with myself. I want to truly get in touch with the person I am inside; the person God created me to be and the person I am being called to be. I have been asked to leave everything I know to move into a new, unknown land. God's reassurance through Christ is that God is, and will always be with me as I go into this new land.