Did today’s First Reading lose you a bit amidst all the animal carcasses and smoking fire pots? The part about Abram’s descendants numbering the stars is easy to follow, but then things take a turn toward animal sacrifice and floating flames. (See Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18.)

Here’s what’s going on. In the time of Abram, passing through divided animal sacrifices with a lit torch was a common practice for forming a covenant with someone. So, in this moment, God is forming a deep relationship with Abram, swearing that what He promised to Abram at the beginning of the reading would be fulfilled.

Abram had a front seat to this particularly dramatic covenant. But we, too, are the witnesses and partakers of our own covenant with God in Christ Jesus. When we are baptized, brings us into His everlasting covenant. We become His family.

So what’s promised to us in this covenant? The possibility of eternal life. Unending happiness in the next life when we stay grafted onto Christ. (See Matthew 7:15-20.) The most beautiful plan for our lives.

The Lord wants only our greatest good. He has a perfect plan for our life here on earth, even when it might deviate from what we think is “perfect.” He has made a way for our particular souls to reach the heights of Heaven. In the covenant of our Baptism, He promises us that He has the best plan for our lives.

Abram was worried that his legacy would be second-best, but the Lord guaranteed Him the very best. The Lord made possible the impossible; He redeemed what was thought to be lost; He restored and He promised and He fulfilled. And He does that for you today, in your soul, right now.

Your life is not God’s Plan B; His will for your life is not second-best. The dreams God puts on your heart are not leftovers or afterthoughts. He carries a bright torch for your life, and He desires to bear the most life-giving fruit through you. We only need to remain in Him as He remains in us (from the Alleluia).

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This vibrant preacher speaks on covenant and shares new insights.

Olivia Spears lives in Kentucky where sweet tea and bourbon flow like milk and honey. She is the Blog Manager for Blessed is She and works from home as an editor and social media manager. She likes to binge novels and Netflix while raising her children and laughing with her husband. She is a contributing author to our children's devotional prayer book, Rise Up. You can find out more about her here.