El Olam
Genesis 21:33
THE GOD WE NEED
Day 6: El Olam
The Gardener
"And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God." (Genesis 21:33, NIV)
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There is a need that surfaces when everything around you feels temporary. Friendships fade. Health declines. Even the ground beneath your feet, financially, relationally, physically, seems to shift with each passing year. And somewhere in that instability, a question rises. Is there anything that will actually last?
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Abraham planted a tree in the desert, of all places, a slow growing tamarisk that would take decades to mature, and there he worshiped God by a name he had not used before. El Olam, the Everlasting God.
Olam carries the sense of ancient time, time without visible boundary on either end, stretching backward beyond memory and forward beyond imagination. To call Him El Olam is to say He was not born into existence and He will not fade out of it. He simply endures, past every ending you have ever feared.
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This is how He meets the need for permanence in a world that offers none. He does not merely outlast your circumstances. He becomes, for you, the unshaken ground beneath everything that shakes.
Abraham could not know if he would live to see that tamarisk grow tall. But he planted it anyway, an act of quiet faith in a God who would still be standing long after the tree, and after Abraham himself, was gone.
Trees fall. Seasons end. He remains.
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Prayer
El Olam, Everlasting God, when everything around me feels temporary, remind me that You do not fade. Be my lasting ground. Amen.
🌱 The Gardener
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