A Story of God and All of Us - By Roma Downey Page 0,2

him humanity is being given a fresh start. Through him, faith will be born. Through Noah, God will continue to embrace the world. Through Noah, God will execute his plan for mankind--a plan

designed before the earth was created.

But before embracing the world, God will focus on a single nation of people who fear Him and honor Him and worship Him. In that nation will live a man upright and faithful, as is Noah. His name will be Abram. But that is all still to come.

Noah now revels in the warmth of the sun on his face. The ark is bobbing toward land, and he can already feel the floodwaters receding. Then he hears God's voice loud and clear, and he knows his journey is over.

"Come out of the ark," God commands.

The great door on the side of the ark is lowered. The animals pour out onto the dry land and quickly scatter.

God has saved the world by nearly destroying it. Noah was chosen to 6

continue God's plans for humanity. But mankind is fickle, and destined to make the same mistakes once again, turning their backs on God and His all-encompassing love.

But God will act once again to save the world. For all time. But next time He will not need a Noah.

Next time He will send His only son.

This is a story of God and all of us.

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PART ONE

A MAN NAMED ABRAHAM

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Thousands of years ago, in the city of Ur, in modern-day Iraq, lives a man named Abram. He is a direct descendant of Noah, eight generations on, through the lineage of Shem. Abram is a vigorous seventy-five years old, with broad shoulders and a flowing beard barely flecked in gray. His wife Sarai is known far and wide for her great beauty, even though she is of the same generation as Abraham. The one sadness of their otherwise charmed life is that Sarai has not been able to bear children. One could never detect this sorrow from Abram's behavior. He is always quick with a smile, and forever has a "Peace be with you" on his lips.

Abram enters the great temple in Ur, where he is greeted warmly by friends.

Ur is a city of many gods, and the temple walls are covered in elaborate symbols--an owl, a crescent moon, a snake, and the peaceful smile of a goddess. All around Abram, noisy worshippers gyrate and sway, consumed by the rhythm of a procession entering through the grand doors. A brightly painted wooden statue carried atop a litter is set down on a low altar, to which a live goat is tethered. The crowd chants louder and louder as a temple priest draws his sacrificial knife. The noise is deafening--shrieks, chants, thunderous cheers. The priest grabs the back of the goat's head and pulls it upward to expose the neck.

Abram would normally be absorbed in the ritual, but on this day, he hears a voice he has never heard before. It is speaking only to Abram; no one else in the temple can hear it.

"Abram." It is the voice of God. "Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land I will show you."

Abram gazes up to the sky, his mouth open in shock as the unmistakable voice of God makes spectacular promises in exchange for the enormous demand.

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The priest has cut the goat's throat, and presses his knife deep into its soft belly to reveal its liver. Abram sees none of that.

"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. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. And all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

A lesser man would be puzzled. Or perhaps fearful. But Abram hears the call, which is why God picked him for the task He has in mind, just as He once chose the upright Noah. Abram stands in the frenzied temple, where the priest now holds aloft the goat's liver, not an ounce of doubt in his veins.

"Yes," Abram softly tells God, in a voice brimming with passion. "Yes."

It's one thing for God to instruct a man to leave his homeland, his friends, and the very lineage that has coursed through his family for generations, and it is another for a man to deliver this stunning news to his wife. Abram races home from the temple, eager to tell Sarai. He steps into their