Today's first reading is the well known story of the sacrifice of Isaac. One might well look at that story and ask how God could possibly ask a Father to sacrifice his son. Others will answer that it was to test him. The only problem with that theory is that you test someone to see what they will do but God already knows what Abraham will do.
God doesn't need to test us. He already know our score. He knows us better than we know ourselves. We have nothing to prove to God. We can prove nothing to God.
This story is another example of how God, knowing us better than we know ourselves, will at times push us to extremes that appear to be beyond our endurance, even to places that to us might seem absolutely impossible. Why? So that we might learn what God already knows. In the words of Psalm 139
You formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, because I am wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works!
My very self you know.
We don't need to prove anything to God but sometimes God has to prove something to us.
Abraham had more courage, strength, faith, and trust in God than he knew. God had to show Abraham what he was made of. God knew; Abraham didn't. Abraham needed to know who he was in order to carry out all God planned for him.
Sometimes we have no idea how wonderfully made we are. It is the flip-side of our arrogance, insecurity. It is only in adversity that we learn what we are really made of, how wonderfully made we are.
