Mike McClenahan

Abraham caressing Isaac (Rembrandt) There is so much about the Abraham-through-Jacob-story of Genesis that is so unlikely: old bodies giving birth, lying, wrestling with brother, wrestling with God, refugees becoming great, stealing birthrights, to name a few. And on the back end of unlikeliness we have hope because we know how the story goes. But on the front end of unlikeliness, while we are still in the unlikely, there is often no hope.  Hope is not always immediately or obviously found. There are more reasons not to hope than to hope. Sometimes hopelessness comes in the waiting, sometimes in the barrenness, sometimes in the long journey to a new place.  I visited a friend last week who has declined over the last three months because something is attacking his brain. Tests are still inconclusive. The doctors are still scratching their heads. They think they know what it is not, but they don't know what it is. Without a diagnosis, there is no prognosis.  There is fear and

"So God created  human beings  in his own image,  in the image of God  he created them;    male and female  he created them." Genesis 1:27 Last Sunday we began our journey through The Story--31 weeks of connecting our individual and unique stories with God's epic and grand story. We covered the first nine chapters of Genesis, which is like fast forwarding through a movie and just getting a glimpse of all the action. As I was reflecting on the beginning chapters, where God creates everything we see and don't see, where God fashions human beings out of the ground ("Adam" means dirt) and establishes his relationship with every living thing ("Eve" means living one), a phrase caught my attention: "Let us make human beings in our image" (1:26). In God's image means to be in relationship. "Let us" reflects mysteriously the community of the trinity.  It means to be in relationship with God and with each other as God is in re