Just Like Dad

That night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid for I am with you." Genesis 26:24

Just Like Dad
By Rev. William Dohle

My wife and I have a crazy game we play together as we look at our kids. It's called: Where does that come from?

I works like this. We see some quality in our children. Say the way my son messes up his room and just doesn't see it's dirty, and my wife will say to me: "That he got from his father!"

Or she sees the way my daughter collects things and can't seem to throw away anything. "That she gets from her father."

Or the way my middle son expects things to go his way and cries when they don't. "That he gets from his father."

It's fun to play, really. Fun when you realize how your children draw on the qualities of their parents as they act and react to the world around them.

And, of course, it's nothing new. The same could be said of Isaac in regards to his father. Isaac faced similiar situations as Abraham did and used many of the same tactics as well.

When up against the Philistines, Isaac said, "She's my sister" because he was afraid to say, "She is my wife." Just like his father Abraham did to his own mother on two separate occasions.

Isaac continues to do his fathers work, reopening the wells his father had dug and the Philistines had stopped, giving them the same names his father had given them too.

Isaac finds himself in a water dispute, just like his father Abraham. And just like Abraham, Isaac makes for himself an agreement with leader of the people, Abimelech, king of the Philistines.

But the biggest way that Isaac follows after his father is in God's eyes. For God doesn't see Isaac as a solo individual, but as the inheritor of the blessing. "I am the God of your Father...I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham."

Indeed, Isaac is blessed BECAUSE of Abraham. Not because of anything he himself did to please God. God is faithful to Isaac because he was faithful to Abraham and because God's faithfulness lasts forever, Isaac enjoys the same blessings his father enjoyed by God.

We too are children of Abraham, inheritors of the promise. St. Paul writes of us, modern children of Abraham, "Understand then that those who believe are children of Abraham...So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith."(Galatians 3:7,9)

We too are "just like our Dad" Abraham. We hold for ourselves the faith that is counted as righteousness. Faith in God who redeems us and sustains us and blesses us beyond imagining. We too can look at the stories of Scripture and find ourselves hidden within them because they are OUR stories. They are about OUR fathers and OUR brothers and OUR relatives. And we become as they are, "just like Dad", who is ultimately just like our Heavenly Dad, creator of heaven and earth.

For, in light of this, I can say. My oldest son is faithful...just like his Heavenly Dad. My middle son has great curiousity about the world...just like his Heavenly Dad. And my daughter is joyful...just like her Heavenly Dad!

How are you...and your children...reflections of your Father in Heaven?

Heavenly Father, thank you for the faith you planted in your servant Abraham. And thank you for adopting us into this family. May we share the faith of all your servants as we live our lives in service to you and to one another, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.