It’s a nice, cool evening. I’m sitting under the oak tree, reflecting on my journey with an ink-dipped quill in my hand and a parchment on the table before me.

The first words I thought to write were about the first time I heard the voice of God, but they were immediately overtaken by the memory of where my curiosity about God began.

My father has never stopped telling us about our ancestors, right from the days of Adam, but particularly about Noah. I learnt Noah was still alive when I was born, and the day my father first narrated the flood story, I begged for us to take a trip to meet him. He passed when I was 58, but I am grateful I met him once and heard those stories directly from him.

Bible fact: Abraham was alive at the same time as the ten generations of fathers before him, from Noah to Terah.

He spoke of his first encounter with God, the instruction to build an ark in expectation of a flood when such a thing had never happened before, and his obedience to the assignment. He told us of the gruesome violence on the earth then, and my mind could not find the right brush to paint the picture.

I remember the day I left Papa Noah. Consumed by his words and my continuous attempt to imagine the days before the flood, I found myself muttering, “God, I want to see You.”

I have seen what life looks like in Ur of the Chaldeans, where I currently live with my father, Terah, and it is fast becoming a point of comparison with everything Noah told me. I have seen them bow to carved stones, wood, and every object they consider sacred, which is literally anything.

On the same visit with Noah, I also heard the story of Enoch, a man who walked with God. He had a habit of going on walks in the evening, and many times he was found sitting beside a gently flowing stream with chirping birds harmoniously blending with the symphony of the moving waters. He did this often, until one day he did not return home. People looked for him for many days, but were soon comforted by dreams that he had been taken from this realm.

Bible Fact: In the recorded genealogy, Enoch was the second man after Adam to exit the earth (not accounting for Abel).

I shared the same curiosity as everyone else. “How can a man know and walk with God so much that God is willing to disrupt the human order to have him in heaven?”

“I guess the Father truly seeks those who would worship Him in Spirit and Truth.”

Those conversations with my father and Noah, and the dissatisfaction with the things I see in Ur, have left me desiring to meet God, or even to follow the path of Enoch and become the second man to be taken from the earth. I want to build a relationship that transcends the fabric of time.

And since then, my prayer through the watches of the night and the steps of my day is, “That I may know You and never lose sight of You.”

My name is Abraham, and this is my Diary.

Writer’s Note: There are no references or records for certain positions taken in this piece; I have taken liberties for literary purposes.

I pray this blesses you, and if it does, do share and leave a comment.