Two Paths

Rashi says at the beginning of the parsha וארא אל האבות.  The meforshim on Rashi ask what is Rashi adding to what it says in the possuk, אל אברהם יצחק ויעקב and what is Rashi coming to teach us?  There is a story of a Slonimer chassid who was sent by his Rebbe, the Divrey Shmuel to the Rebbe Reshab.  After they discussed the message the Rebbe Reshab asked him to repeat a vort from the Slonimer Rebbe.  He said over that the Slonimer said that אבות is from the word אבא, a desire.  Hashem appears, is revealed (וארא,) according to a person's desire to come close to Him.  The Rebbe Reshab liked the vort.  

The Lubavitcher Rebbe takes the opposite approach.  He says that Rashi is teaching us that Hashem appeared to the Avot, not to them specifically because of their abilities but it passes down as an inheritance to their children. 

These are two different relationships and connections one forms with Hashem.  One is natural, built in to the DNA of a person as a descendent of the Avot.  The other is one's one own avodah to find their own personal path to connect to Hashem.  As the Shla says, there is זה קלי, my G-d, my own path and אל'י אבי, that wich is an inheritance.  Both are necessary components of ones' service of Hashem.  One builds upon the וארא that one receives merely by having an innate connection to the Avot and one builds upon that further according to the אהבה that one develops upon their own.