Abraham and the Great
I AM.
by Jeff Smith
​(Genesis 17)
 
I am God
God I Am
And I rename you Abraham
 
I like that name
God I am
I like the name of Abraham
 
Would you like
It Abaham
to covenant with me, I AM
And I will make your family tree
A holy nation unto me
 
I would like that
God I AM
To bless the seed of Abraham
I would like it for my tree
I would like it just for me.
 
Would you like your family
To be like kings and royalty?
Would you like them to be crowned?
Would you like their names renowned?
 
I would like that
God I Am
All the seed of Abraham
I would like my family
To be kings and royalty
I would like them to be crowned
I would like their names renowned
Oh, I would like it very much
All that royalty and such.
 
Well would you like it Abraham
If you could own all of this land?
All the land around you now
Over there to yonder cow
Over there to farthest knoll
Or up there to that canyon hole?
You see that groundhog near that tree
That would be your property
Everything the sun hits low
The animals and plants that grow
 
OH I would like that God I AM
If all of it was Abrahams
All the land around me now
As far as yonder spotted cow
Or over there to farthest knoll
I’ve got relatives down in that hole
Or where the groundhog burrows down
I won’t evict him from my town
I’ll sit and watch the sun set low
And know I own it all below.
We’ll sit and eat our bread and jam
Sarai and her Abraham
 
Oh Sarai! That will never do
We’ll change her name to something new
We’ll call her Sarah, Abraham
She’ll be the mother of your fam.
Do you like it Abraham?
The name that’s given by I AM
 
 
Oh, I like it. Yes. I do. I do.
I like the name that comes from YOU.
I’ll say it by the yonder cow
I’ll say it over my land now.
I’ll say it when on farthest knoll
It echoes down the canyon hole
I’ll say so the groundhog knows
Whether up above or down below
I’ll say it when the sun arises
I’ll say it loud so it surprises
I’ll say it when we have our jam
Sarah and her Abraham.
 
 
 
Then one more thing, old Abraham
Just need to mention ‘fore I scram.
You will need to have a son
To carry on when you are done.
I will do that Abraham
Because I am a GREAT I AM
 
A boy to play around your feet
You’ll need to add another seat
For when you eat your bread and jam
Isaac, Sarah, and Abraham.
Would you like that Abraham?
To have a son to share your jam?
 
OH.  I would like that most of all.
To have my own son grow up tall?
We could milk the spotted cow
And ride the camels to the brow
And take a hike to farthest knoll
And throw rocks at the creek below
And chase the groundhog when it rises
And watch the sunsets and sunrises
And we could have green eggs and ham
When we eat our bread and jam
That would be the best, I AM
A son for this old Abraham.
 
But I’m afraid it’s past the time
To speak of things in children’s rhyme
We’re much too old I fear, I AM
We’d make a better Gramp and Gram.
It’s almost laughable to say
Sarah’s son is on the way
We couldn’t even do the laundry
Being old is quite a quandry.
 
THEN the GREAT IAM he thundered:
 
Would you like it ABRAHAM
To be reminded WHO I AM.
I’m the one who made the cow
And camels and the camel’s brow
The farthest knoll?  Well you should know
I made it many years ago.
That sound you heard?  The splash of rock?
I made it on a morning walk
To see the groundhog in the hole,
The canyon like a mixing bowl
The sunrise and the sunsets too
I even made the sky for you
And I made you Oh Abraham
Because I am the Great I AM
And I can make green eggs and ham
And bread and jam and Abraham
I can make for you a son
And now the conversations done
So be it in a year from now
You’ll take that walk to see the cow
 
So do you like that Abraham?
 
Well, could I call him Sam?  I AM?
 
His name is Isaac, Abraham.
 
Got it.  Thank you God the Great I AM.

(The following article was written as a response to an email from my friend, Kurt Jarvis, who was making a anthology of mission reflections and asked for contributions from friends.)


​2015 and I had been asked to return to South Africa for a children’s ministry conference hosted by Ivangeli and my dear friend, Lisa Ekman.  Lisa and her husband, Colin have been some of the “treasures in the fields” that I’ve discovered in 32 years of full time ministry. 
 
However, in the beginning of that year, I started to experience a debilitating illness that put me at the crossroads of a breakdown.  It was something I had never experienced before and was harrowing because I didn’t understand it or what was happening to me.   After a few months of a severe depression, I finally went to a doctor.  (I have no idea why no one suggested that to me or why I didn’t think that the problem might be physical.)  The practicing physician took one look at me and told me I was having panic attacks.  I sat there in shock.  Anyone who has ever known me would be surprised to hear that I was struggling with any type of anxiety.  Anxiety?  Me? 
 
It turns out to have been a simple case of chemical imbalance.  Actually, it was simple enough that a small dosage of medicine took care of it almost immediately.  However, I would spend the next two years working through the spiritual side of the issue through counselling and discipleship.  But, that is only the backdrop for my mission reflection.
 
About the time I went to the doctor, I was considering cancelling my mission trip to South Africa.  It would have been a gross misjudgment to minister to anyone in my state, let alone travel to South Africa and work with 1500+ children’s pastors over two weeks.  I don’t even remember the sequence of events, but I can tell you they were extraordinary.  God foiled every plan I had to cancel and at the last minute, I found myself on a plane to South Africa clutching on to my little bottle of medication and the faith I had built up in a miracle-working God over all those years.
 
He didn’t disappoint.
 
Although I didn’t know if it would, the medicine kept everything intact.  But the miracle was how God used so many people in South Africa to minister to me.  Colin and Lisa were brilliant and spoke to my soul at every level.  I actually went away with Colin on a mini-retreat between conferences and he ministered to me as an angel of God in the desert.   THREE (3) different missionaries that I worked with at the conferences were led to speak the same verse to me without necessarily knowing the extent of my story. 
 
Psalm 37:25, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.”
 
THREE.  They were arrows that directly hit their mark.
 
Without any assurances, God put me on a plane and asked me to trust him in South Africa so that He could turn me around and set my feet on solid ground.  Not only was it the beginning of my healing, it was the beginning of a five year journey that has led me deeper into a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ.
 
Missions.  I trust God will use you as part of his plan to reach others.  But I KNOW that you will  be changed by trusting God in outreach.