Genesis 22:1. Most Christians have heard this reading time and time again. In short, God calls down upon Abraham, a descendent of Noah, asking him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, in order for him to prove his faith of his lord and savior. Think about what goes through Abraham’s mind here: “Well, I was just in the presence of God himself, that’s kinda cool… But he just asked me to kill my son, which is not so alright.” But despite his doubts, he blindly trusts in his faith in God. He builds an altar, lays his son down, and raises up the knife. But surprise, surprise; right as Abraham is about to do the deed, an angel comes down from heaven, informing him that he has more than proved his loyalty. So, yes, you could consider this a happy ending for Abraham: God accepts his commitment, and he gets to keep his son; win, win. But what about poor Isaac? His father would’ve willingly killed him for some idol in the sky. Abraham chose God over the life of his own son, a person with whom he can talk, love, and be. Would Abraham feel truly gratified having gone forward with that act? God finds you loyal, but your son is dead forever. It blinded him. Isaac’s view of God can’t be too positive at this point “This ‘God’ guy just commanded my dad to kill me, and he almost did. How in the world is that a showing of God’s so called eternal love?”

A numerous amount of centuries later, a child with the same name as the son of Abraham is born, year 1980. Isaac was born to a family of drug addicts and alcoholics. This is his story.

Isaac and his parents lived in a trailer home on a small property just outside of a rural suburb in the small town of Grundy, Iowa. They were a poor family, which was obvious to most upon seeing the kight of their living conditions. The trailer had only one bedroom, which was occupied by Isaac’s parents. Isaac was not only forced to sleep on the floor every night, but he was also exposed to his parent’s drug addiction. They both had a serious problem with heroin injections and the overconsumption of beer, which became a normal view for Isaac.

But when Isaac turned six years old, his mother came home with a strange book of which Isaac had never heard. It had a brown leather cover, and the words “Holy Bible” were printed across the top in gold ink. It had a red silk bookmark dangling from the neck. Isaac’s mother said that this book would allow their family to be “reborn” and escape the addiction and harsh conditions.  Isaac was overjoyed. Isaac’s father, on the other hand, was furious that this book had been brought into his home. Isaac was sent to his parents’ bedroom, behind closed doors, where he could only faintly hear the raging dispute between his loving parents.

The next morning, Isaac woke up to see that his father had vacated. Everything that once notified his existence was nowhere to be seen. Isaac’s mother informed Isaac that his father didn’t agree with the contents of this strange book, so he left. As a matter of fact, he despised it. But this was a mere speed bump for Isaac’s mother; she didn’t need him to continue in redeeming herself. Soon, she stopped reading Isaac bedtime stories, and instead: Biblical readings. Isaac learned of God and how he sent down his only son, Jesus Christ, to save us from sin. Isaac had never heard of sin before. His mother explained sin to be the committing bad deeds; whenever you carried them out, they took a toll on your soul.

Isaac thought about all the times he had sinned. He remembered the time in school when he threw a paper airplane and hit that girl in the eye, and the time he kicked the neighbor’s cat. He began to feel bad. He lay in bed that night awake, remembering all the sins he had committed. He became self-conscious of all the horrible things he had done. Was he damned to be a sinful person for the rest of his life?

He asked that same question to his mother the next morning. But due to the fact she had done heroine the previous night, she couldn’t answer. Isaac let this question linger all that day, as his mother continued doing drugs and drinking and getting crankier and crankier. What she had said about her husband, that she didn’t need him, was one hundred percent false. She was a wreck. She stopped interacting with Isaac, stopped caring for him. She locked him in the bedroom that night so she could mourn in peace. This naturally left Isaac even more confused than before. Why was his mother being this way? This wasn’t the “rebirth” she promised.

The more Isaac pondered, the more he thought he began to understand it. Maybe sin wasn’t such a bad thing. His father told him once that a person is defined by their actions, and that they are destined to continue in what defines them. Was this Isaac’s destiny? To be sinful? This Christianity thing didn’t seem to be helping his family’s situation. As a matter of fact, ever since his mother brought home that Bible, things had gotten progressively worse around the house. Isaac found his father’s departure and his mother’s crankiness both led back to the Bible.

This led Isaac to another assumption: that his mother was leaving just like his father did. Not because of the drugs, but because of the corruption that that book had committed on her. The heroine couldn’t be the reason for her problems, right? She did it all the time. She didn’t seem to care when her husband left. The love he once felt from her was minimal, but was at least present. He now felt no love whatsoever.

Isaac was unaware of the amount of love that was being directed at him in that moment. Though he couldn’t feel it, God in heaven was showering Isaac and his family in love and forgiveness, for they had all sinned. Isaac’s story is a rare one. As a matter of fact, the last time it happened was in the time before Jesus walked among men. It’s tragic really, when someone so young misinterprets something as great as the Bible to be something so evil. Isaac’s mother suffered the same blindness that Abraham did, and Isaac felt the same sense of abandonment as the Isaac so many centuries before him.

This wasn’t the first time it had happened, and it won’t be the last. That much, ironically, only God can tell.