"The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision...He brought him outside and said, 'Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.' And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness." ~ 1st reading for the 2nd Sunday in Lent I always thought Abram was staring up into a dark night sky, dazzled with stars-as-descendants, breathing in cold crisp air as he tried to believe the impossible for a childless man of his age. Turns out I was wrong. Read the rest closely. The sun sets later, as the story slips into Act Two of the fateful covenant, as Abram and God seal the deal over a nighttime sacrifice and a burning torch of hope in the darkness. So the day was likely still bright and blazing when an aging Abram was first asked to trust in stars he could not see. I'm deeply grateful to Ignatian Spirituality's Just Parenting blog for this insight that turned this Sunday's Scripture … [Read more...] about seeing stars in sunlight