When I was a little boy, I remember my mom, in response to me saying something to the effect that we must love God more than anything else, said, "I couldn't love anyone more than I love my children." As someone who she took to Sunday school every week, I was shocked, but she wouldn't recant.
As a parent, I now certainly understand what she meant, although my personal view of life is that my children are as much parts of God as buckets of sea water are parts of the ocean, so in loving them, I am loving God.
One of the most controversial stories in the Bible is about Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, a son whose birth was something of a miracle in its own right.
Keeping in mind that at the time Abram was told to sacrifice his son that human sacrifice was not that uncommon and that the Ten Commandments hadn't been written, which I guess meant that he wouldn't have been breaking any rules, we learn the first lesson of this story: it's impossible to judge people living in an entirely different time and culture using our more evolved consciousness and set of laws.
As a parent or child, it is also easy to understand that a father sacrificing a child would be the worst thing possible, except possibly being a child killed by your own parent, destroying all concepts of trust and love prior to being murdered. In fact, my grandfather outlived his son, and we can understand it's hard to accept even when the child dies of natural causes. As such, it is easy to grasp the concept that whatever we do to be close to God would be small by comparison. Some would interpret this as a comment on abortion, but as people living in the age of movies, plays and books available to the masses, I think we can recognize foreshadowing of the crucification of Jesus, who at the end asked His father why He had forsaken Him.
Of course, when Abram is prepared to make this supreme sacrifice for God, God does a third act reversal to give us a happy ending. God appreciates Abram's faith and willingness to do whatever God would ask, and so changes his name to Abraham, meaning father of a multitude, a promise fulfilled. In being willing to give up what was dearest to him for God, he had it multiplied. This is another great lesson. As people who are Religious Scientists have observed, you can't give money or talents to a good cause without having them returned multiplied. It is a lesson about how to achieve prosperity.
Another obvious change that happened after this was that the nations fathered by Abraham would understand that human sacrifice was unacceptable, because they were in effect killing their own children. Unfortunately, a radical branch of Abraham's children now sees homicide bombing as acceptable, indicating they have lost understanding of the moral of this story, among other ancient wisdom ignored.
In the final analysis, if I heard a voice telling me to kill one of my children, could I do it? No. I couldn't make that sacrifice, despite knowing, as a result of the example of Jesus, that they are spirits having a human experience and will live forever in an alternative form when the time comes for their transition. It helps me understand the sacrifice of Jesus.
Right now cruises to the Holy Lands are very affordable. You'll never have a better opportunity to visit lands where these ancient lessons unfolded.
