Precious Truth: Sorrow may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning
Sarah and Isaac by Elspeth Young
Today’s Reading from The Word
Genesis 21:1-7
The Birth of Isaac
1 Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.
5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.†7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.â€
Sarah was a beautiful woman who had wealth and a husband who loved her. She had servants and what any woman of her time may have wanted. Except for one thing. She didn’t have a child. Little did she realize that was to be included in the plan that God had for her husband Abraham, and that it would fulfill her greatest wish- to have a child of her own.
In this passage, Sarah remarks on the unlikelihood of the events which took place in her life, of her pathway in life. When this was first foretold nine months earlier she laughed, as well. but it seems it held more a note of skepticism than joy.
Too often we get used to the “how things are” and meet faith’s challenge with a skeptics response. Sarah’s cradle was filled, and her joy overflowed, what might we miss if we stay in doubt’s hold? Let’s not find out, and instead choose to stretch our faith with Abraham and Sarah as our examples during the waiting time of Advent.
Look deep into the story here, and it will be evident that true joy is wrapped up in God. Christmas without the joyful story of God sending a son, His Only Son, is empty and tinny, and only highlights how poverty stricken this earth is without God’s presence and light.
Let Christ enter your heart’s home, and see how different the atmosphere of not just this holiday, but the rest of your future shall be! You may laugh like Sarah did. Joy, indeed, comes with the morning, and that is a wonderful hope. A joyfilled life, think of that.
Coloring picture for Abraham, Sarah, and baby Isaac.
