Birds of a Feather: Abraham's Sarah

I've been thinking a lot about Sarah lately.  Sarah, as in Sarai, as in Abram (or Abraham)'s wife - from the Bible.  Did you know she was 90 years old when she finally gave birth to Isaac?  Her first son, promised by God.  A promised fulfilled long after her body was designed to bear children.  Probably what we would today call, a "medical miracle."

I've often wondered about her.  About all the years leading up to that miraculous promised birth.  How did she manage to remain faithful, to trust in the promise of the Lord as years and years and years went by?   To believe the in the fulfillment of a promise that seemed increasingly remote, and eventually - nigh unto impossible?

I think of the strength she must have had to repeatedly face the questions of well-meaning (and not-so well-meaning) nosy individuals?  Because I'm sure they asked - "You don't still think you are going to have a baby, do you?" or "IF you are still planning on having a child at your age?"  How did she keep it together when asked at 45, 60, 75, and all through her 80s?  How did she bear the sting, and still trust in the Lord and His promise?

Do you know what she did when the angel finally came to announce that she would give birth within the year?  When she was age 89?  She laughed.  Laughed.

I imagine it to have been a knee jerk reaction, tension released from the many years of hoping, waiting, praying, and pleading.  Something like this:  "Really Lord, after all this?  Now when I have all but given up hope, when I can no longer envision the fulfillment of Your promise.  I've even considered the possibility that I misunderstood, that it was a promise for another woman, or maybe in the next life - now, when my barren womb no longer holds the potential of life, and my limbs are weak with age... after all these years that I've trusted, and waited, is it finally here?!?"

I understand (on a much smaller scale) her struggles.  I feel a kinship with her, as I have similar mortal experiences, and strive to continually trust in the Lord's promises to me.  And yes, He has made me promises (in this mortal life), of things that I desperately desire.  I think of Sarah often as I face the questions of well-meaning individuals, "IF you still think you are going to...."

So, let me answer all of those people here and now - my answer is: YES.  When the Lord makes a promise, He keeps it.  I know that.  I don't know how, or when, or where, and in my small mortal mind I can't even picture it happening anymore, but somehow He will make a way to fulfill His promises.  I believe, even as I struggle to imagine.  And someday, someday, I think I too will laugh at the fulfillment - and just perhaps my promised blessings will be all the sweeter for the waiting.

I consider the Faith of Abraham (Romans 4:18-21)
"Who against hope believed in hope... And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform."