Gen 13:2, 5-18 / Mt 7:6, 12-14
I had the honor of serving as a Marine Corps Battalion Chaplain at the end of Desert Storm, and spent some time in Israel as part of a contingency force — ready for whatever might happen. One day I was walking in a desert area with the senior enlisted man for the battalion, and he jokingly said: "Padre, can you imagine Abraham walking around in this place [nothing but dry and brown all around where we were] and hearing God say 'everything you see all around you is yours' — I can imagine Abraham saying back to God 'uh, God, you want to check your grid coordinates?'"
I don't know that Abraham was all that surprised to hear God giving him the Promised Land — desert and all, but to inherit the desert was probably not Abraham's favorite part of the promise. But God offered Abraham the best: a heritage and lineage that brought Jesus into the world.
I believe it was because of Abraham's confidence in God's providence that he could give away the more productive land to Lot in today's first reading. Abraham was not concerned with any bleakness he saw, because what he really saw was a loving God who could be trusted to fulfill all His promises.
Sometimes it may seem to all our worldly senses that to follow God is going to be bleak, dreary, troublesome … a real desert! But to trust Him with our heritage brings the greatest of blessings. These blessings may not even be for this world. Abraham certainly didn't see much of them, other than the seed of Isaac.
Can we dare to willingly give up what we see as "good" here for what is "yet to be"? Sacrifice is never easy. It implies being uncomfortable. But God is quick to remind us of the promised blessing for those who willingly give up the "good" of here for what is yet to come.
