Abraham , Isaac and Soren

I suppose this is a continuation of Saturday. I am trying to tackle Soren Kierkegaard's discourses on Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac (Fear and Trembling). God promised Abraham a son, and through that son the blessing of a posterity that was greater than the grains of sand on a beach or the stars in the sky. Isaac was the son of a promise to a faithful man, in fact a man known as the father of faith. Abraham remained faithful when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac.

Without really pondering the whys, hows and wherefores of this request, and taking an easy answer, another thought train chugged through my brain-are we not face with the same request when a child is conceived and born? Think about it...the moment that child is conceived there is separation. When the child leaves the womb the separation becomes physical. Then in time it becomes a spirit and soul separation as the child exercises self-will in all areas of life. Our knife is the surgeon's tool which cuts the cord. The child is given back to God at that moment. He or she lives on, but like Abraham, the separation happens in agreeing with God that that child is His. Abraham was separated from Isaac before they reached the top of the mountain. If we think for a moment our love is enough and that we are in control, a rude awakening is bound to come sooner or later.

Abraham had a very dreadful and conscious moment of realization. My son reminded his father and I of this fact the night he put a gun to his head. Though he was delusional, in shock and despondent, or maybe because he was, he cried out about the selfishness of having even conceived him and laid the burden of a life on his shoulders. We tried to convince him of the gift of life, the joy his life brought to us, but he would have none of it. This is faithlessness at its most profound, a person who rejects the gift of life, and even in that, the gift is what it is-a gift from God. A gift belongs to the giver, chosen for a beloved. Nothing the beloved does denies or negates the gift. Neither does the beloved have the right of total refusal. Our son didn't, but had the bullet found it's mark, still the life returns to the Giver. To presume this is not the case is to never truly know the meaning of life.