Terah is Abraham's father, and this verse is easy to miss. He starts the journey to Canaan, but then he stops at Haran. He dies there, and his son has to complete the journey.
I'm sixty-seven, and I think about this a lot. What are the journeys I started that I won't finish? What am I passing on to my kids that they'll have to carry forward? Terah doesn't get to see the promised land, but his faith (or at least his willingness to start moving) makes Abraham's faith possible.
My granddaughter asked me recently if I was disappointed about not finishing some of my dreams. I told her about Terah. Sometimes the point isn't crossing the finish line yourself. Sometimes it's taking the first step so that someone else can eventually arrive. That's been strangely liberating.
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