A Promised Son
Reading: Genesis 18:1-15
“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”
A covenant promising descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky must at times have seemed questionable to Abraham. His only child was his son, Ishmael, born of Hagar, Sarah’s slave.
Now God has come again to Abraham, this time in the form of three visitors to his tent. After serving his guests a fine meal, a normal part of nomadic hospitality, Abraham receives the promise of a son to be born to his elderly wife, Sarah. Eavesdropping behind the tent flap, Sarah busts into laughter, just as Abraham had on an earlier occasion. What an impossibility! She was an old woman!
God deals in impossibilities. The One who created the earth and heavens, and continues to sustain them, has no difficulty with promising a baby, even to an old woman. God’s purposes are fulfilled in spite of our disbelief.
Our response to God’s promises is often no different from Sarah’s. What, change me? Give me a new purpose for living? Take away my feelings of guilt? We may not laugh out loud, but we do not believe. God still has a difficult time convincing us that miracles are possible in our lives, just as they were in Sarah’s.
For Reflection: Have I ever laughed at God’s promises to me?
A Prayer Seed:
You have eternal life implanted in the soul;
You love shall be our strength and stay, While ages roll.
We praise You, living God; We praise Your holy name;
The first, the last, beyond all thought, And still the same.
Daniel Ben Judah, 1404
