Sarah

Jeremy and I are teaching the kids' class on Wednesday nights at church. Because the congregation is so small, we have all the ages of kids, from elementary through the teenagers, stuffed into one classroom. It can be sort of crazy. And it's the first time we've tag-team-taught. Usually, I'm the one who teaches the kids and he's the one who teaches the teenagers, and we're hoping to get the congregation to grow to the point that we can split the class into two classes like that.
Anyway, we're teaching through the story of Abraham right now. Last week, we talked about how God promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child. Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 90. Needless to say, they laughed. After all that time of waiting, God was finally going to give Sarah what she'd been wanting for so long. Back then, if you didn't have children, you didn't have anyone to take care of you in your old age. It was definitely a thing looked down upon and often you were looked at and others wondered what you had done wrong to make God not give you such a blessing. I guess even though I'd heard the story hundreds of times, I was in a more emotional state that night. And I wondered, at what point did Sarah give up? When did she just decide that she wasn't ever going to have a child? I know it was by the time she was in her seventies, because she gave Hagar to Abram so he could have a child that way. But still . . . I guess I just wished I knew more of the story. I wanted the backstory, the details, if you will, of how she dealt with that, not even having the medical advances that we have today to give her extra hope. Because I'm struggling right now with all of it, and I do have the thought that someday we might be able to afford such a thing.
And then, the verse that stabs me in the heart everytime and reminds me that there is still hope, even in a situation that seems hopeless . . . "Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son." Genesis 18:14. I added the emphasis. Because that's the part I need to keep reminding myself. Is anything too hard for the Lord? If He could give a 90 year old woman a son, couldn't he give me a child, too?