Last year it was time to get a new car for the house. I made out a check and went to the dealer. I thought that buying a car was like buying a banana. You give them the money and they give you the car. Wrong. We were there for hours filling out this, that and the other form. It seems buying a car is not so much a transaction as it is a relationship. This is relevant to help us undertand that our dealings with God are a relational as well. Connecting with God is not a transaction: We don’t do this much (praying, church going, commandment keeping) and get that much of God’s love. No, from the beginning, as God insisted with Abram, God takes all the initiative. When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him: “My covenant with you is this…” All Abram, and we, can do is respond to what God is doing in us and for us. That is why gratitude is the heart of the spiritual life.
