You’ve probably heard preachers and teachers use a lot of images to say what God is like. All those images have their limitations and each one conveys only a bit of the truth. Ruler, rock, mighty fortress, parent -- there are many pictures that try to get across some sense of the reality of God. But I’d be willing to bet that you haven’t heard of God being compared with the tooth fairy. That’s hardly surprising because those two figures don’t have much in common. In our reading today from Genesis, however, we can see one striking similarity. “As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram,” the story says. “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land.’” Both God and the tooth fairy bring their gifts when the receiver of the gift is asleep.
When you’re in a deep sleep, of course, you don’t do anything except maybe dream and snore. You can’t display any virtues, perform any good works or even thank a person for any gift you might be given. The money slips under the pillow and you don’t know about it till you wake in the morning. And yet it’s in that state, “dead to the world” we might say, that God gives Abram the tremendous gift of a covenant and the promises that go with it. Abram will have many descendants and they’ll get the land of Canaan -- among other things.
We don’t expect to get anything for free so it’s natural to ask if Abram had done something before falling asleep that would earn such a great blessing. And yes, he had done something -- but “earning” anything is another matter.
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