Leaving Familiarity Behind

Leaving one’s country behind. Leaving kindred and a father’s house behind. That is what the Lord asked Abram to do. Abram obeyed God.

Reading this chapter, and especially these particular verses, brought to mind the immigrants who came to Canada in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. They left familiarity behind when they left their countries, their kindred (families) and their fathers’ houses behind. They settled the new land and built a nation. The one thing they did not leave behind was their faith. Whether these immigrants were Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians or Anglicans, they brought God with them on the journey. They thanked God for safe voyages, for land they could farm or the availability of jobs in the cities, for the opportunities a new land brought for their children in the form of education, and for the blessings of being part of a community in their new homeland.

Many churches across Canada are visual reminders of these immigrants and their love of God.

Dear God, we know you have always travelled alongside your people wherever they were headed in their lives and that you continue to do so today. We are grateful for that. Amen. — DD