The One Who Laughs

Inside the weathered old tent, I strained my ears to hear what my husband and the three visitors were saying.  Life is not easy for me, moving from place to place, in our nomadic uncertainty.  But my husband is a good man.  He cares for me all these many years. Some call him a godly man, as God often talks with him. 

Once God told him to go to a land, and God did not even tell him where it was.  As unbelievable as it sounds, we packed everything up and off we went, not even knowing where we were going.

One of the most amazing things God told him was his descendants would be as many as the vast expanse of stars we see overhead each night. But there was one problem. It was me.  I was a publicly disgraced barren woman. Abraham reassured me I need not feel guilty, but in our culture, giving your husband children, especially a son, means everything.  What a failure I was.

Another time God spoke to my husband, He changed our names.  Abram is now Abraham meaning ‘father of a multitude,’ and I am now Sarah, which means Princess. Next God told him I would be a mother of nations, Abraham fell on his face and laughed.  He told me he was thinking, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old, and his wife 90?”

God told him I would indeed give birth to a son, and his name would be Isaac, which means laughter. I would have thought it hilarious, if I wasn’t so heart-broken over the whole situation.

Straining my ears at the edge of the tent, I heard the men say that when they return next year, I will have a son.  That’s when I laughed to myself. How is it possible for me to give birth to a son when I am so old?!

Turns out one of the men was God Himself.  He asked why I laughed.  This was my big moment.  God spoke directly to me, asking a question.  What did I do?  I lied. In that moment I knew even more deeply what a disappointment I am. In my fear I told Him I did not laugh.

His answer to me was, “No, but you did laugh. Is anything too wonderful or too difficult for the LORD?”

God graciously did remember me, and I miraculously did conceive. Our son Isaac was born at just the right time.

Now we laugh, and whenever someone hears our good news, they laugh with us.

Laughter has different forms.  Before Isaac was born, we laughed in disbelief, but now we laugh in belief, knowing we have faith in God who keeps His promises.

God took my greatest pain point, the shame I lived with all my married life. In His time, He is giving me more joy than I ever thought possible.