Abraham and the Stars
God shows old Abraham the stars in the sky and gives him a great promise. Abraham believes the promise with all his heart.
Abraham Who Waited Patiently
Abraham was a kind-hearted man who loved God very much. He and his wife Sarah had grown old, and they had never had any children. Abraham had always longed to have a big family of his own one day, but as time went by, it began to seem impossible to him. Every morning when he woke he would look around, hear the quiet of his tent, and feel a little ache inside. His neighbors had children and grandchildren; but Abraham and Sarah had been waiting for years. Sometimes their hope grew small, and they thought, “Perhaps it is too late now.” But Abraham never stopped trusting God. Waiting for something hard can be very tiring; being patient is not the easiest thing in the world. Abraham learned to be patient too, just as a farmer who plants a seed waits patiently for the little shoot to appear.
A Sky Full of Stars
One night God spoke with Abraham. He said to him: “Come outside and look up at the sky.” Abraham stepped out of his tent. The night was deep and dark blue, and the sky was full of thousands, tens of thousands of stars. There were so many stars that if he tried to count them, he could never finish.
God said in a gentle voice: “Can you count the stars? Your family, too, will one day be as many as these stars.” Abraham lifted his head and looked at that shining sky, and he smiled. Even though his mind could not fully understand how this would happen, his heart trusted God. “If God has promised, then it will surely come true,” he thought.
The Promise Kept
Abraham learned to wait. Some days were hard, and sometimes he wondered, but he never lost his hope. And when the time came, God kept His promise: Abraham and Sarah had a son named Isaac. The old couple's home was filled with laughter and joy.
As Many as the Stars
Isaac grew up, and he had children too, then grandchildren… As years and centuries passed, Abraham's family really did grow bigger and bigger — becoming as many as the stars in the sky that night.
Abraham's story teaches us patience and trust. Sometimes a good thing we want does not happen right away; we have to wait. But like Abraham, we can keep our hope. Next time you look up at the stars at night, you can remember a great promise that was kept and a heart that waited patiently.
Talk about the story
Abraham trusted something he could not yet see. When did you have to wait patiently to trust a promise?