A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

That is a title to a book that just got to me. Sometime in the future I will read that book. Books help me. I guess the words struck me because I have been teaching ancient history at home to the girls studying the journey of how nomadic people on different continents wandered foraging and following their food supply until they settled near the great rivers and eventually became highly developed civilizations. It is in man to desire and create abundance for himself.
Once the nomads could find easier ways to supply food, they had time to devote themselves to activities that make a culture a culture, and did they ever do that! When the earth produced plenty, they built architectural wonders to worship numerous invented gods, created writing systems, had flushing toilets and running water for goodness sakes, had art, music, established complex governmental systems and even had a couple of good old fashion wars to see who would be top banana.
One of those civilizations was the Sumerians who were amazingly sophisticated and far from their ancestral traditions of living in tents or caves following their breakfast lunch and dinner.... and it is from this empire of human achievement that Abraham received the unique call to leave one father and one country returning to his nomadic roots not just to survive, but to become a pilgrim son to another Father. He walked away from the realm which glorified human effort to follow the promise of another. And of course, you know the rest of the story...the story of a long obedience in the same direction. History doesn’t really change, does it?