Abraham had always looked old to Isaac, but not this old. His skin now resembled the papyrus that the Canaanites used for paper—the color of ivory and very thin and wrinkled. His beard, once thick and flowing, was now just wisps of hair that swept across his face with every breeze. Abraham was one hundred and seventy-five years old.
Sarah had died almost forty years earlier, and Abraham and Isaac still missed her laughter and her beauty. Sarah’s tomb, a cave known as Machpelah, was a favorite place of theirs, near the trees of the old chieftain Mamre, outside the city of Hebron. Someday Abraham and Isaac would be buried there, too.
Today, though, Isaac was just enjoying sitting with Abraham inside his father’s tent. It was dusk and the sun would be setting soon.
“It is almost time,” said Abraham.
“Yes, I know,” said Isaac. “Time to watch the sun disappear over the mountains.”
“And time to watch for the first star of the evening. Your star, Isaac.”
“No, Father, the first star is yours. Because you are the father of a nation.”
Abraham closed his eyes and started to smile.
“What is it, Father? What are you thinking?” asked Isaac.
“Oh, only of Ur of the Chaldeans, a place you have never been. But I know I have told you of the ziggurat, have I not?”
Isaac nodded as if he had heard the story many times.
“There were one hundred steps from the bottom to the top, and sacrifices to be made at many levels. I think that is like my life, Isaac. With my father, Terah, I followed the voice of the Lord to a new land, with many stops, or steps, on the way.” Abraham paused to catch his breath. “When I arrived in Canaan, I had to face famine and warring armies. And while my faith was not always strong, again and again I came back to God. Isaac, my son, remember: life may be hard but God is always good.”
“And now you are at the top of the ziggurat?”
“Well, in a way. At least there is nothing blocking my view. There are only the stars….”
As the stars came out one by one that night, Isaac put his arms around Abraham and held him tightly. “And all the stars are yours,” he whispered.
Abraham died sometime during his one hundred and seventy-fifth year. Ishmael returned to Canaan and he and Isaac buried their father next to his beloved wife, Sarah.
Isaac married a woman named Rebekah, who was the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor. Isaac and Rebekah had twin sons named Esau and Jacob. One day Jacob would be buried at Machpelah, too.
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