Abraham Desires Children

Today I read Genesis 15 where Abraham desires to have children. It is always very strange to me when someone does not want children because it seem to be an instinctual desire/need to have children and have them carry on your legacy and genetic line. Yet despite this, some people state they do not want children which is very strange to me. But in this chapter you can almost feel Abraham's longing as he talks to the Lord and asks how His promises are going to come to pass.

The Lord has promised Abraham at this point that his seed will be numerous, in fact in this chapter he tells Abraham that if he were able to count all the stars in the sky, that is how many seed he shall have. Now the King James Version of the Bible ends there and just says Abraham believes the Lord and moves on. The JST version adds a little more to the story. Abraham asks the Lord how the land that had been promised him for an everlasting inheritance would be brought to pass. The Lord's response is a bit cryptic to me, but the part I found interesting is Abraham is then shown a vision of the Savior's life. It gladdened his heart to see it and he believed all that the Lord had told and promised him.

I can understand Abraham's skepticism. Sometimes the things the Lord promises don't always happen right away. When I returned from my mission, my greatest desire in the world was to be married. I was promised over and over again just be a little patient, it is being withheld for a reason. For 7 years I waited until finally I met my wife and it was such an instant attraction that I proposed to her after our second date, a mere 2 days after our first date. Fortunately she felt the same attraction and did not run away from the weirdo who had fallen head over heels for her. But for 7 years I begged and pleaded and asked why and was only ever told to be patient. Come to find out, my wife, who I believe was meant for me, is 5 years younger than me. When I wanted to be married she would have only been 16 years old! So marriage was indeed withheld for a purpose but those 7 years were almost intolerable for me. Despite believing Heavenly Father and trying my best to not be stagnant and build a career and being stable in life, I always felt like a piece of me was missing.

But God never does anything without a reason. As far as I know, we don't know the reason that Abraham had to wait until he was almost 100 years old to have children, but he did. We don't always get to learn the mind of God and why things happen to us, but we need to be patient and wait on the Lord's time and remember that He never does anything "just because". He ALWAYS has a reason. Until tomorrow.