Placed In A Place

"and Abraham returned to his place."  Genesis 18:33

Abraham had a place.  He and Sarah lived in a tent in the middle of the desert.  It was "by the terebinth trees of Mamre." Scripture says he sat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day.  After living in the south for twenty years, I can see why he placed his tent near the trees.  Any protection from the sun must have been great.  My southern neighbors kept their blinds closed "in the heat of the day." After he talked to God about Sodom and Gomorrah, "the Lord went His way...and Abraham returned to His place."

Abraham had a place. There, the Lord stopped to speak with him. He told Abraham what He planned to do.  He stopped by the very spot where Abraham lived to talk with him.  God had led him there years before.

Charlie and I are Wisconsinites now, residing in the town where we grew up.  After moving many times during our married life, we are smack dab back where we started. We're using the same zip code we learned in grade school. When we graduated from high school and went off to college, we never dreamed that our life journey, our joyful journey, would take us all over the USA.  Places like Georgia, South Carolina, Connecticut, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama were only states on the map.  Then, just like that, they became "our places," because we lived there.

Placed in a place.  Back in the dairy state, we have our own "trees of Mamre" in the woods behind our house. Abraham sat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day.  We sit in our cozy house and look at the snow glistening on the branches in the cold of the winter. It's a good place.

What about you?  Where is your place?  Do you have your chair by the window where God comes and talks to you?  How are things in your place?

Is your place a small place?
Tend it with care!
He set you there.

Is your place a large place?
Guard it with care!
He set you there.

Whatever your place, it is
Not yours alone, but His.
He set you there.
                              John Oxenham