Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Genesis 12:1-4
The Lord not only uses scattering as a form of punishment, but He also uses it as a form of blessing and maturing process for individuals and/or a group of people. God commanded Abraham to leave his land and his people and to go to a place that he didn’t know anything about. Abraham did what the Lord asked him without hesitation. As you read the scriptures about Abraham’s journey, you see God’s hand of blessing and provision upon his life.
There is a faulty mentality that if we are loyal to people, we have to stay with them for the rest of our lives. Some believe that the only time you leave a relationship is if there are unresolved differences. The scripture has a different story. There is no reference in the Bible that Abraham had any issues with his family. He only left because God asked him to. That means he had to actually leave the comfort of what was known to step into the unknown! God was developing a relationship with Abraham that may not have been possible if he had stayed with his family of origin.
My family was scattered when I was in my teens. My brother left the country and came to the U.S. at the age of 19 and went to Nebraska to go to college. A year later, I came to the U.S. at the age of 15 and landed in California to start as a Junior in high school. My parents had to flee from my hometown a year later due to outbreak of war and bombing! We were not scattered because we had issues with each other. On the contrary, we all missed each other very much. The separation was very hard for me for quite sometime!
Looking back, I am a different person because of those years of separation and difficulty. I learned to take responsibility for my own actions. My family wasn’t around to support me or to have a shoulder to cry on. I didn’t have the luxury of living with excuses neither did I have anyone to cuddle me. The separation brought me to a place that God’s voice became the most important voice in my life. Over the years, God has weaned me from man-made identity and false security in others! If it weren’t for those years, I would not be the person I am today. I am so thankful for those tough years of separation!
How do you view separation in the light of scriptures?