Genesis 18:1
There’s something very profound about the way Genesis 18 begins:
“The Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.” (Genesis 18:1)
Now, here’s the irony. What makes this beginning profound is that it’s so ordinary. Abraham is sitting on his porch when God shows up. He’s not offering a sacrifice or building an altar. He’s not conquering armies or receiving a vision in the night. He’s just sitting in the shade during the hottest part of the day. I’d like to think that Abraham had a glass of cold lemonade in his hand. It was an ordinary, seemingly predictable, and quiet moment. The kind of moment most of us would never think twice about.
And that’s where God meets him. I think many of us unconsciously assume that God only shows up in the extraordinary moments of life. We expect Him in church services, on mission trips, at retreats, or in emotional breakthroughs. We often look for Him and expect Him in the dramatic and the spectacular. But Genesis 18 reminds us that God often comes near in the middle of normal life.
In her wonderful book Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Warren wrote, “The crucible of our formation is in the monotony of our daily routines.” Amen to that! For us, it might look like a divine encounter:
On the porch.
At the kitchen table.
During the commute.
Walking the dog.
Folding laundry.
Sitting with coffee before the house wakes up.
The problem is not usually that God is absent, but that we are inattentive. Over the course of years walking with God, Abraham had cultivated a life attentive enough to notice God in the ordinary. And maybe that’s one of the invitations of discipleship: not simply to seek more extraordinary moments, but to become more awake to the presence of God in everyday ones.
The text says Abraham was sitting “in the heat of the day.” That detail matters. This wasn’t a spiritually charged moment. It was hot and probably uncomfortable. The kind of afternoon where nothing important seems to happen. And yet that’s when heaven touched earth.
So friends, may your eyes be opened to the “porch encounters” that God brings your way. Today, don’t rush past your life waiting for a “spiritual” moment. Pay attention to the ordinary moment you’re already in. Because it may just be the place where the Lord appears to you, too.
Ryan Paulson
Lead Pastor