Craig and I have had fun discussing baby names. He offers helpful suggestions like Beyoncé and Eustace [insert eye roll]. My solution: Name everything in the house Eustace. You can’t call a houseplant and a kid by the same name. You just can’t. While we’ve had our goofy moments, something we are serious about is choosing a name for Baby Burge that has meaning.
| A name can hold great meaning. Isaac means “he laughs” and Abraham, at 100 years old, gave his son this name (Genesis 21:3). Abraham and Sarah, who was at that time 90 years old, had waited decades for a child. Reading Genesis 16, there is no doubt that Sarah believed she might never have any children. Abraham too. But here we are in Genesis 21:2, when Isaac is born “at the very time God had promised him.” | Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. |
Besides “he laughs,” I think there’s another meaning to Isaac that continues throughout his life. Isaac is a reminder that God provides. When it didn’t seem possible, Sarah became pregnant with Isaac and she laughed because God provided the impossible (Genesis 21:6). At just the right time in His plan, God provided. Amen?
There’s a saying that God laughs when we make plans. And let’s face it, I, Beth Burge, have a plan for everything. One huge lesson I continue to learn through the process of adoption is this: God provides. While I find myself slipping into setting expectations for when and how and where and what the adoption will look like, I know that’s all a bunch of phooey. God will provide at just the right time.
God continues to demonstrate his provision through Isaac’s life. Some time later Abraham was tested. In Genesis 22, God tells Abraham in verse 1, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Abraham demonstrates great faith and early the next morning, he prepares for the journey in which he believes would end in Isaac’s death. Abraham loads the donkey. Chops the wood. And sets out for a long journey that takes him up a mountain to where he can make the sacrifice (verses 3-5).
For three days Abraham travels with the intention of reaching Mount Moriah. I can’t imagine what was going through his mind. It couldn’t have been an easy journey with Isaac. This wasn’t in Abraham’s plan.
How did Abraham get there? I imagine one step at a time.
Being in the journey of adoption at this moment, I can relate. It’s just one step at a time. Praise God that He is with us all each step. Amen!
Before they reach the place the Lord called him to go, Abraham stops to worship God (verse 5). What a lesson this is! It is one thing to recognize God’s presence; it’s another to pause and worship your Creator when you are being tested.
There’s a saying that God laughs when we make plans. And let’s face it, I, Beth Burge, have a plan for everything. One huge lesson I continue to learn through the process of adoption is this: God provides. While I find myself slipping into setting expectations for when and how and where and what the adoption will look like, I know that’s all a bunch of phooey. God will provide at just the right time.
God continues to demonstrate his provision through Isaac’s life. Some time later Abraham was tested. In Genesis 22, God tells Abraham in verse 1, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Abraham demonstrates great faith and early the next morning, he prepares for the journey in which he believes would end in Isaac’s death. Abraham loads the donkey. Chops the wood. And sets out for a long journey that takes him up a mountain to where he can make the sacrifice (verses 3-5).
For three days Abraham travels with the intention of reaching Mount Moriah. I can’t imagine what was going through his mind. It couldn’t have been an easy journey with Isaac. This wasn’t in Abraham’s plan.
How did Abraham get there? I imagine one step at a time.
Being in the journey of adoption at this moment, I can relate. It’s just one step at a time. Praise God that He is with us all each step. Amen!
Before they reach the place the Lord called him to go, Abraham stops to worship God (verse 5). What a lesson this is! It is one thing to recognize God’s presence; it’s another to pause and worship your Creator when you are being tested.
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” | After worshipping God, Abraham continues and prepares the wood and fire (verse 6). Here, Isaac asks in verse 7, “[W]here is the lamb for the burnt offering?” I love Abraham’s answer: “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” I don’t know if I always understood what he was saying. I’m sure Isaac didn’t understand the magnitude either. God does provide the lamb: Jesus Christ. He became the sacrifice for us. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6) God provided the sacrifice, His Son. |
| Back to Isaac: Abraham continued. An altar was built, the wood arranged, and Isaac bound. And at just the right time, the angel of the Lord stopped him and when Abraham looked up, he saw a ram caught by its horns. God provided the sacrifice. And the ram took the place of Isaac (verses 11-13). What was Abraham’s reaction? He didn’t get angry with God for the test. He didn’t get frustrated because he had travelled for three days and then up a mountain. No. On Mount Moriah, Abraham recognized God and called the place The LORD Will Provide (verse 14). | So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” |
I have watched how in each place of the adoption journey- the decision, the home study, the wait- God has provided. And the Lord will continue to provide. For the birthmom. For Baby Burge. For you. For me. In whatever place we’re in, watch how it becomes known as The LORD Will Provide.
On Mount Moriah,
Beth
On Mount Moriah,
Beth
