That feeling, that fleeting nature of time, echoes in a powerful story about Abraham from Ginzberg's undefined.
Imagine this: Abraham, not yet the patriarch we know, but a young man on a mission, confronts a woman in the desert. She's searching desperately for her lost child. "How old was this child you speak of?" Abraham asks, his voice likely gentle but firm. He’s trying to understand the situation, to piece together the truth.
Then he poses a question that cuts to the heart of her desperation: "Is there a woman in the world who would forsake her new-born son in the desert, and come to seek him after twenty days?" Think about that for a moment. Twenty days. Such a short time in the grand scheme, but an eternity for a mother separated from her child.
Her response is simple, yet profound: "Peradventure God will show Himself a merciful God!" There’s such hope and faith in those words, isn’t there? A belief that even in the harshest of circumstances, divine mercy can prevail.
And then comes the twist. Abraham reveals himself: "I am the son whom thou hast come to seek in this valley!"
Can you picture the mother’s astonishment? "My son, how thou art grown! But twenty days old, and thou canst already walk, and talk with thy mouth!" The impossibility of it all crashes down on her. Just twenty days… and yet, he is standing before her, a changed being.
And here's the message Abraham delivers, the core of the entire encounter: "So it is, and thus, O my mother, it is made known unto thee that there is in the world a great, terrible, living, and ever-existing God, who doth see, but who cannot be seen. He is in the heavens above, and the whole earth is full of His glory."
It’s a powerful proclamation, isn’t it? The story, as related in Legends of the Jews, isn't just about a miraculous growth spurt. It's about witnessing the divine in the impossible, seeing God's presence even when it defies logic and understanding. It's a reminder that even in the blink of an eye – or the span of twenty days – everything can change, and the hand of the divine is always present, even when unseen.