“I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
~ Genesis 21:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Four days after your grandpaa had his 23rd birthday, your dad was born. Your dad was born about two weeks later than the day that your grandmaa’s doctor told your grandmaa that your dad would be born. Instead of your dad being born head first – like most kids are born, your dad was born breach – which means that your dad was born feet first. Your grandpaa has said that your dad has done things backwards ever since. If a baby is born breach, it will sometimes take the baby’s ma a longer time to recoup than a ma whose baby is born head first. Because it was hard for your grandmaa to do anything right after your dad was born, your grandpaa would get up during the night when your dad woke up crying to feed your dad a bottle of milk, change your dad’s diaper and walk around the living room of the apartment where your grandmaa and grandpaa were living holding your dad until he fell asleep again. Your grandmaa was 21 years old when your dad was born. Your grandmaa and grandpaa had been married for about five months when a doctor told your grandmaa that she was going to have a baby. Your grandmaa and grandpaa had really liked living together – without kids. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were not disappointed that your grandmaa was going to have a baby but . . . having a baby was not something that your grandmaa and grandpaa had thought about or had planned on having. Your grandmaa and grandpaa found out that having a baby was a responsibility that they were not ready to take on as a dad and as a ma. After your dad was born, your grandmaa and grandpaa found out how selfish that they were. When your grandpaa married your grandmaa, your grandpaa thought that living with your grandmaa would be something easy and a whole lot of fun to do. Your grandpaa was really happy and proud to have such a vibrant, beautiful gal married to him while your grandmaa wanted to be married to a guy who wanted to talk with her, listen to her and spend a lot of time with her. Then your dad was born. Because your grandmaa and grandpaa were committed to their vows or to their commitments to each other when they got married, they did not have any choice but to learn to live with each other. Your grandpaa knows that it was more through your grandmaa’s special tenderness, innate flexibility and natural spirituality versus your grandpaa’s inherited stubbornness, focused intensity and expectation criterion that have been the keys to make the marriage that your grandmaa and grandpaa have work over the years (58 years as of the editing of this missive). Your grandmaa and grandpaa found out that having kids was a good thing – kids who your grandmaa and grandpaa know their God – as God the Father, blessed them to have to raise/teach to live Christ-follower lives – which your grandmaa and grandpaa are very thankful that your dad and Aunt Lynn are doing
Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. Sarah was Isaac’s ma. The name Sarah means princess. Sarah was 90 years old when Isaac was born. Isaac would be the only kid that Abraham and Sarah would have between them. Sarah had always wanted to have a kid born to her. God – as God the Father, personally had told Abraham a couple of times that he and Sarah would have a kid born to them. Because of how old she was, Sarah had trouble believing that she would ever have a kid born to her. Genesis 21 recounts what happened when Sarah gave up having a kid born to her. Sarah told her husband – Abraham, to go ahead and have a kid with Hagar. Hagar was Sarah’s Egyptian maid. Sarah would make a type of claim on the kid who was born to Abraham and Hagar. The kid was named Ishmael – which means ‘God listens’. When Isaac was two or three years old and Ishmael was sixteen or seventeen years old, Ishmael got himself in trouble with Sarah by teasing and tantalizing her kid. Because of Sarah’s anger and jealousy of Ishmael, Abraham did not have a choice but to send Hagar and his and her son – Ishmael, out into the Beersheba Desert with some food and a skin of water. God – as God the Father, appeared to Abraham at this time to tell Abraham what is in verse 13, “I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”’ An angel of God visited Hagar where she was alone with Ishmael in the Beersheba Desert to tell her that she did not need to be afraid – that God – as God the Father, was going to make her son – Ishmael, the head of a great nation. The Paran Desert became Ishmael’s home. Hagar found an Egyptian gal to be Ishmael’s wife.
Do you ever wonder what kind of legacy that you are going to be leaving on planet Earth when the time arrives for you to be taken to heaven? Abraham’s legacy is being the patriarch of two massive people groups of guys and gals – the Israelite people group of guys and gals and the Muslim people group of guys and gals, that exist today. God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, began with Isaac being born to Abraham and Sarah. Christ-followers are guys, gals and kids who have been adopted into the extended family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. A Christ-follower is grafted into the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when he or she accepts Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior – believing what Jesus did on a cross when He gave up his life as a ransom payment for his or her sins. Muslim people group guys and gals are from the extended family of Abraham and Ishmael. The Muslim people group of guys and gals now make up about one out of every five guys, gals and kids who are living on planet Earth. Ishmael’s extended family for more than 4000 years has been jealous of and has been trying to totally eradicate Isaac’s extended family from planet Earth. This is why Muslims – who are Ishmael’s extended family, have an inherited animosity for all Jews – Jews being Israelite people group guys, gals and kids.
Genesis 21 (631)