Genesis: What Abimelech Observed

I spent most of my time last week in Genesis 21. I kept rereading verses 22-34. I just couldn't seem to get anything too profound out of it, and I thought for sure I was missing the point. Then I realized two things:

1 - Abimelech noticed Abraham was blessed and sought to be a part of that blessing. I think this is fascinating, especially given that Abimelech doesn't get any mention in the Biblical canon as being a believer in God. That fact was convicting to me: a non-believer is more in tune with seeing who is being blessed than I probably would be, and he also DOES something about it.

How often do I simply overlook God's blessings? Whether it be in my life or in other people's lives? And not only that, but when I do see that God is blessing someone, does it prompt me to action? Or is it just, like, "Oh, hey, that's cool. Hm. 'Bout them Huskies..." It makes me think of how much more I could be doing. If I'm looking for blessings around me, and notice someone as being blessed, why on earth don't I go to them and say, "Hey, what's the deal? I noticed you're being really blessed. How can I get a part of that?" Not that I'm promoting being greedy, but perhaps more from the perspective of maybe I have something I can learn from that person. Not that God operates on a strictly "those who deserve it get blessed" basis, but there ARE some areas where it seems to follow that logical thought - honor your father and mother, and you'll be blessed with long life, etc.

2 - Sometimes I expect that God will work in supernatural ways to accomplish what he plans. Wrong. I think sometimes he uses very normal, everyday, human events and actions. In this case, Abraham and Abimelech developed a peace treaty. I don't believe this was wrong, after giving it some thought. God didn't tell Abraham to go into the land and destroy every living inhabitant - that didn't come until much later. Not only that, if God said that Abraham would live in this land, why can't he do it as a "legal resident," so to speak, rather than as an "illegal immigrant"? There's nothing wrong - and, in fact, it might often be RIGHT! - to progress through conventional, legal, appropriate, ethical chains of command. Abraham was blessed that the chain of command came to him, of course, and that he didn't have to go seek it out... but still, it seems insightful.

So there you have it: God grants lots and lots of blessings. I want to see them. I want to search them out. I want to not be afraid of letting God work through circumstances and not wondering if maybe I'm missing the clear leading. So maybe, when all the doors start opening for you to purchase plane tickets to Niger to work with a Medical Team at a remote hospital, it's reasonable to take that as an indication that's the direction to proceed, don't you think? :-)