|
Sarah laughing, detail from ”Angel Appears to Sarah”
Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, 1696-1770. Sarah laughing, detail from "Angel Appears to Sarah", from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55120 [retrieved June 16, 2023]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giovanni_Battista_Tiepolo_065.jpg.
|
Laugh With Me
It suddenly dawned on them that the wildest dreams they’d ever had hadn’t been half wild enough.
Federick Buechner
It suddenly dawned on them that the wildest dreams they’d ever had hadn’t been half wild enough.
Federick Buechner
Imaging the Word An Arts and Lectionary Resource, Volume 2
Living Out the Text: Is anything too hard for God?
God comes to Abraham when he and Sarah are old and promises them a son. Sarah doesn't believe the promise and laughs when she hears it. We sometimes give Sarah a hard time for laughing at God's promise, but it actually makes perfect sense. Sarah is well past the age where she should be able to have children. Even though she has wanted a child for years, the time for that to happen has come and gone. At first glance, the promise that she would have a son makes no sense, so Sarah laughs at it.
On the surface, the promise makes no sense, but it is not the promise that carries the weight, but the promise maker. Sarah's faith doesn't belong in whether the promise makes sense or not, but rather in the person who makes the promise. It's the same way when God makes a promise to us. It doesn't matter if the promise makes sense to us or not. Our faith should not be in the promise, but in the promise maker. Remember the question God asked Abraham, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Since God can do anything, any promise he makes can be trusted, whether it makes sense to us or not.
David W. Dalton
God comes to Abraham when he and Sarah are old and promises them a son. Sarah doesn't believe the promise and laughs when she hears it. We sometimes give Sarah a hard time for laughing at God's promise, but it actually makes perfect sense. Sarah is well past the age where she should be able to have children. Even though she has wanted a child for years, the time for that to happen has come and gone. At first glance, the promise that she would have a son makes no sense, so Sarah laughs at it.
On the surface, the promise makes no sense, but it is not the promise that carries the weight, but the promise maker. Sarah's faith doesn't belong in whether the promise makes sense or not, but rather in the person who makes the promise. It's the same way when God makes a promise to us. It doesn't matter if the promise makes sense to us or not. Our faith should not be in the promise, but in the promise maker. Remember the question God asked Abraham, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Since God can do anything, any promise he makes can be trusted, whether it makes sense to us or not.
David W. Dalton