… AND SARAH LAUGHED

Genesis 18: 11 – 12NKJ “Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying ‘after I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also?”

As I talked with one of my friends about her challenges today, I realized that though she trusts God and believes He is able to do all things, somewhere inside her, she felt her challenge could not be fixed. So that unwittingly, she was questioning “the truth” that says nothing is impossible with Him. When I told her my opinion, which was contrary to hers, she laughed; a laugh reminiscent of Sarah’s laughter. Sarah believed God and did not doubt His power and ability to do as He says yet somewhere inside her was the thought that her situation was beyond fixing. She understood her challenge perfectly and understood that God, who made all things, is orderly. She knew that He would not normally upturn the order of things and even if He thought to do so, she could not conceive that it could be for her. Certainly, she did not realize how important she was in God’s plan to show forth His praises. 

1 Peter 2: 9NKJ “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

I know the pain of having to wait on God; particularly when He appears to be fixing other people and all you get from Him is a word, the same word He has always spoken. Some of those other people may even be some of the worst people you ever met; and like in Sarah’s case, how does one know that God requires their story to be different so that it can be written in the bible to encourage you and me? Sarah was an ordinary woman living a normal life and God did not tell her that a bible would be written in the future in which He would like to tell her story; and how would her story have appeared in the bible if she had failed to play her predestined role? Interestingly, your own role always appears worse to you but do you realize that you and your challenges are valuable to God? Did it ever occur to you that your challenges are important to encourage other people and display His greatness or has the pain sold you a lie that God has forgotten you and cannot fix that challenge? 

Sometimes it is not because of something one hasn’t done or didn’t do right that some things remain pending; it may be that God, who uses His chosen ones differently, has chosen you for His glory. I realized recently that much as I admire the major women in the bible, I would rather not play their part. Yet if they knew each other, some may have envied others not knowing their pain but it’s easy for me to make the decision not to be any of them since I have the benefit of reading their stories; seeing their pain and challenges as well as their joy. I definitely would not like to be Sarah; though she married a wealthy man and at a young age, yet she waited too long to have a baby and “surrogacy” did not work well for her since Hagar and Ishmael ended up disdaining her. Mary, despite the honor of being the mother of our Saviour, had to endure the shame of being pregnant before her wedding. I wonder - could she not have gotten pregnant the day following her wedding day? Did it have to be so shameful? Neither would I like to be Hannah the mother of Samuel or any other woman for that matter knowing their challenges but God doesn’t have to share your neighbor’s pain with you. He deals individually.