It’s kind of fun when you look at someone and can tap into their absolute joy. I looked at this young dad, Alex, holding his brand new baby girl and a flood of empathy hit me.

I remember very well holding my newborn son for the first time. I had just one blaring thought in my mind, “Don’t drop him!” Every fiber of my being was intensely focus on protecting and preserving that precious little boy who had just shown up.

I remember very well seeing my daughter for the first time, equal in love as with my three boys, but also a white flag of surrender going up over my head and heart.

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I’d like to take you down a culinary path this morning. Think about beans, specifically red kidney beans. If you eat them, when and how do you eat them? Many of us might first think of chili. Others a cold bean salad. Then there are refried beans, commonly served with Mexican food. In New Orleans, red beans and rice are the traditional meal on Mondays.

In our culture, we tend to think of beans as an ingredient in a recipe or a side dish. But for much of the world, beans are the main dish. They are inexpensive and nutritious. They are the primary source of protein and high in dietary fiber, as well as rich in essential minerals like iron and folate.

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This passage from Hebrews says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” What does that actually mean?

Let’s take a moment to think about how much has changed since the time Abraham settled in the Land of Canaan. In Abraham’s time, about 1900 BC, the bronze age, the region had large families or tribes that were mostly herdsmen and semi-nomadic, moving their flocks around in the region. There was some agriculture and there were a few cities, but they were small. Damascus, Syria for example, was around 1,000 to 2,000 people. They had no written language, no written law, and only basic tools and weapons. The chariot was the technological edge.

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