ABRAHAM'S OTHER WIFE

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had recently finished reading through the entire Bible. So you'd think I wouldn't be in for any surprises this next time around, right? Wrong!

About a week ago, I read something in Genesis 25 that quite startled me, even though I know I read those same verses only months ago. You know Abraham and Sarah - the parents of Isaac. And you're familiar with the messy story of Sarah's handmaid, Hagar, who became Abraham's concubine and the mother of Ishmael. But maybe you don't remember....

Keturah. After Sarah died, Abraham remarried. He took another wife, Keturah, who bore him six more sons! Their names are recorded right there in Genesis 25:2. I suppose what struck me when I read this passage was that here was a legitimate wife of Abraham, who produced many sons....but she is barely mentioned in Scripture. She makes a blip on the radar screen and then disappears!

This got me to thinking...We read about Abraham and Sarah, then Isaac, and Jacob. Why don't we get the rest of Keturah's story? Well, all of Scripture is really God's story - not Keturah's story, or Abraham's story, or Sarah's story. It is the story of God's creating and redeeming for Himself a people. Abraham and Sarah get a lot of coverage in this story - not because they are special in and of themselves, not because of their intrinsic value as humans, but because they are a significant part of the larger story which is about God and His family.

So, back to Keturah. Maybe she was a wonderful wife and mother. Beautiful, talented. A fantastic cook and hostess. A homeschool mom? Fluent in five languages? Musically gifted? Who knows. My point is, as lovely and praiseworthy as Keturah may (or may not) have been, she was not a large part of the story of God's raising up a Redeemer for His people. She gets a quick mention, and then she quietly disappears.

All this thinking led me to a renewed sense of gratitude for God's work of redemption in my own life. I am so often preoccupied with things that, in the light of eternity, are fairly inconsequential - how well I keep my house, my weight, the clothes I wear, how others perceive me. "Camille, Camille, you are worried and troubled about many things, but only one thing is needful..." (my own personal version of Luke 10:41a). Only one thing is needful, and that is - that I am His, that the story of my life is the story of God's redeeming love. Because of Christ's atoning work on my behalf, I am His. Forever. The story of God's grace in my life has barely begun...this story will take an eternity to tell. How exciting to be even a tiny part of such a glorious epic! What is your redemption story, Dear Reader?

Maybe in Glory I'll get to meet Keturah and hear the rest of her story - not how God raised up a Redeemer through her, as He did through Abraham and Sarah, but how He worked redemption in her.