God keeps His promises, but not always how you think He will! That could be one lesson from the account of Abraham and Isaac.

Think about Abraham. You wait a long time for something that you believed God had said He would do. You are tempted to give up, or to try to get it your own way- you could be saying “God where are you?” You receive the promise, only to be tested in how willing you are to give it up. It seems a strange journey you are on, but God has an eternity He is looking at, and we have only our small part to see… and we don’t see much of that very clearly.

But God is faithful, and He looks for faithfulness in us. Why? So He can bless us in a way that is beyond all our expectations.

The symbols for today are the flame and the lamb. Both play promiately in the account of what God is doing… illustrated first in Abraham, but repeated in our lives as well.

Try some pretty print-outs for Jesse tree symbols ( Pdf ).

Our Bible reading is Hebrews 2

14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.

The seed of Abraham! the heir of the promise… that is what we all are called who obey by faith as faithful Abraham did. Isaac -replaced by a lamb, and the lamb later becoming replaced by the Lamb of God to bring us into promises which cannot be broken.. blessings and a life with our God. Like Isaac did, we want to follow Jesus in obedience, even when we don’t understand:
“Father, Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Why must we suffer? Why did Christ suffer?
“Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide;as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” ”

We must learn to obey. In obedience to God there is blessing.

Today the Jesse craft is a fluffy lamb made out of cotton balls. Use a spool for body, apply glue wind it with roll of cotton ( unwind ball to make the roll),thread a needle with white thread run through t and tie for a string hanger. Add one cotton ball for the head; four toothpicks for the legs- glue them into the ball of the body. Two little black seed beads for the eyes and two black felt ears, glued onto the head. Glue gun makes gluing things easy. Or try this sherpa lamb ornament.