God Said
I didn’t write a first-person account as the journal prompt directed for today, mostly because I couldn’t get past this one question: What was Abraham thinking?
What could Abraham possibly have been thinking?
What was he thinking when he went without a word,
at a word from God,
to the top of a mountain to sacrifice his only son?
What was he thinking as he loaded his donkey with wood to burn
and only his only son to offer?
What was he thinking when the fateful third day came
and he himself carried fire and knife
as the two of them went on?
What was he thinking when the question came from his own wary child,
“Father, where’s the lamb?”
What was he thinking as he built the altar,
and arranged the wood,
and tried to breathe past the sick pit in his stomach
while he bound his boy?
What was he thinking as
he reached out his hand
and took the knife
to slay his son?
What could he have been thinking, except that God said…
God said
I will make your descendents like the stars
God said
I will make of you a great nation
God said
I will bless you
God said
I will provide
What could he have been thinking when God said
Abraham!
to still his slaughtering hand?