The Restless Wanderer

I have never stayed very long in any one place. I went to three different high schools, during which time I also moved to a different state. Since high school, I have never lived anywhere for more than six years. I guess I get restless, or the Lord opens another door, or I just need to move on. I find it very exciting to move to a new place and learn the terrain, although as I get older I find this less and less appealing!

In my ministry I have met people who have never moved anywhere, or only once or twice in their whole lives. I know of some people who have never even been out of the county in which they were born. They’ve just never seen the need to go elsewhere. They’ve worked the same job for 30 years, retired, and stayed put.

I must admit that these folks puzzle me. Have they never felt a need to roam a little?

Genesis 11:27-12:5
"This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. 29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no children. 31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran. 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. 2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth  will be blessed through you." 4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there." 

Why did Terah take Lot, Abram, and Sarai on a trip to Canaan, only to settle down in a place named after his dead son? Did impending old age finally catch up with Terah, and he decided he had wandered enough? I wonder what his final words were to Abram? Perhaps they were something like, “Tell Sarai I am sorry for dragging you both out into the wilderness like this.”

When God spoke to Abram, and told him to go Canaan, was it to complete the journey Terah had set out on? Its possible that God started working with Terah first, but Terah got cold feet when the distance between his birthplace and himself began to grow. So God started again with Abram, who did pull up stakes and move west to Canaan.

In later parts of the biblical record, Abram became known as a “wandering Aramean,” someone who was perpetually on the move in a land that was not his own. He lived as a stranger and an alien to the people he dwelt among.

I can relate.