A year before Sarah (her name was changed along with Abraham’s) gives birth, God sends three angels who tell her and Abraham that it is about to happen. Sarah appears to have given up hope long before this because she is now an old woman and well past the age of childbearing. So, when she overhears the angels saying this to Abraham she laughs. To her, the whole thing had become ridiculous. In fact, when she does have a child, they name him Isaac, which means ‘laughter’. I am so encouraged by this story because I also find so many aspects of life with God to be seemingly ridiculous. There is little predictability and things rarely work out the way I think they should, and just when you think you have it worked out all the patterns get broken, and you are left wondering what on earth God is doing. But God is not the one being ridiculous. We are the ones being ridiculous when we try to predict and understand what God is doing. There is an old proverb which variously goes like this: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” You see, God was calling Abraham to a life of faith. Faith means entrusting your ways to God when you have no chance of understanding what God is doing or why he is doing it. The ground of faith isn’t understanding, it is the relationship with God himself. Faith lets God lead the way and then accepts what comes no matter how absurd it seems.
Entrust yourself afresh to God.
Read Genesis 18:1-15
