Playing rugby in college meant I often found myself in the middle of a match despising the other team. In such a physical sport, I wanted to smash the other team. Despite the intensity of the competition, or perhaps because of it, at the conclusion of each match we not only shook hands with the other team, we engaged in an hours-long social filled with rituals, singing, and drinking. The very opponents I wanted to run all over an hour earlier transformed into people before my eyes.
Have you experienced anything similar? Maybe not in a rugby match, but a moment when a person transformed from being an object into a full person? It could be when your child started to smile when they saw you, the time you said hello to a person living on the street, or when a co-worker shared a vulnerability. Almost magically, that person transformed before your eyes.
In Lech Lecha, Abraham and Sarah undergo a transformation as well. Previously, they are known as Abram and Sarai. Then, as part of God’s covenant, God’s promise to them, their names are changed, adding a bit of God’s name into theirs and turning them into Abraham and Sarah.
Judaism teaches that each person is made in the image of God. For Abraham and Sarah, that Godliness is present right in their names. What would it take for us to see the Godliness and humanity in each person?