by Elizabeth Haarberg

Finding common ground even when we don’t agree.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

Genesis 23 records the account of the death of Abraham’s wife, Sarah. Abraham asks the Hittites, in whose foreign land Abraham and his family lived peacefully for years, if he could bury Sarah in one of their burial plots. The Hittite he asked wanted to give Abraham the plot, but Abraham insisted on purchasing the plot. 

The Hittites told Abraham:

“Please listen to us, my lord, we regard you as a prince of God; bury your dead in the best of our tombs; not one of us would refuse you his tomb for you to bury your dead.”
Genesis 23:6

Abraham not only resided in Canaan with foreign people, he had a relationship with them. The respect was mutual, even though they didn’t worship similarly, and they found common ground by listening, understanding, and learning to love one another.

But…

In the next chapter, Abraham instructs his servant to go back to his homeland to find his son, Isaac, a wife. He recognized that if Isaac takes a wife from a people that worship a different God it would change the legacy he wanted to leave. 

“I am going to make you swear by Yahweh, God of heaven and earth, that you will not choose a wife for my son from the daughter of the Canannites among whom I live but will go to my native land and my own kinsfolk to choose a wife for my son Isaac.”
Genesis 24:3-4

Abraham’s example of how we love, and have relationship with, people whose religion, or politics, differs from ours is still true today. We can love everyone we encounter, but don’t have to agree. Understanding trumps agreement.

We don’t need to link arms and agree that a person’s agenda is correct for us to love them. Loving and agreement don’t have to go hand in hand.

God loves all people that He created. We can draw them in with the love He has poured out on us.

What does the picture of coffee have to do with this post? The coffee shop that I frequent has created an environment that is welcoming and open. People connect with others in a loving way. These are the places that foster relationships and connections.

Pouring love out on the world is possible without compromising our beliefs. Abraham shows us how to do this, and do it well.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado