from part 1
‘Dust in Abram’s walk parallels his attentive look, his call by his God to see, the uncountable stars. ( Genesis 15 ) Each star, each particle, each seed is a new world. We just have ‘walk’ to see, walk to understand, to grow.
Consciousness in these texts come from dust, stars, and from seeing. And from these new worlds of consciousness come life.’
from Genesis 15,
5 “He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
Abram/Abraham is being built by the Lord. Slowly, ever so slowly, the Lord God develops his servant into an acute and active listener. What, how is Abram/Abraham growing in his abilities to hear? to see and to feel? to understand? Abram sees God as the Lord actively and totally listens to him. Abram moves to becoming Abraham, the complete and finished father of stars and dust, nations, by experiencing how God listens to him: to Abram’s thoughts, spoken and unspoken; to his fears and desires and his anxieties; and to Abraham’s faithful loving actions. And to Abram/Abraham’s failings.
In Genesis 17: 3 Abraham falls ‘face down’ ( his mouth and eyes touching, covering the dust that he had walked earlier ) as God explains how Abraham will father many nations.
And in Genesis 17: 17 – 20
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” 19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers.”
God hears both the spoken and unspoken. As we grow in seeing how God listened to Fathers, Mothers and children of the past, we listen well.
By dust, Abram/Abraham grows. By dust and stars Abraham learns, sees and understand, how the Lord hears him. Verse 20 underscores this when after the Lord voices Abraham’s inner speech with complete answers, he says to Abraham, ‘And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; …’
Abraham heard because God first hears him. And we hear as He first heard us, hears our prayers, spoken and unspoken.
Walk this day with Him; see stars and dust. Be conscious of Narnia and Dark Materials. Hear, see, be with him.
charles osewalt's blog 
Leave a Reply