Sarah – A Story of Laughter
Stories of the Promise is a midweek Advent worship series by Pastor Marques and Corissa Nelson. It has been adapted by Pastor Michael Zarling to be used for personal devotions or for an Advent Tea.
The series focuses on three Old Testament women who are drawn into God’s family of forgiveness. The Seed of the Savior comes from their family tree.
Each of these ladies have written a fictional letter to present-day women. Within these letters is woven the Holy Spirit’s scriptural narrative of these Women of the Promise.
The first letter is from Sarah. It is a story of laughter.
Dear Sisters,
My story is one of patience and trust; patience on the Lord’s part as my faith faltered, and learning patience as he taught me to trust him. My story really started when most women would be concluding theirs. My life was pretty normal, except that I had no children. Then, when I was about 65, the Lord decided to send my husband and me to a distant country.
Reader: Genesis 12:4-5 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to travel to the land of Canaan. Eventually they arrived in the land of Canaan.
Sarah: We had some bumps along the way, but eventually we settled down, and the Lord continued to bless us. He even promised my husband that he would give us an heir. Not only that, but that Abram’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky!
Reader: Genesis 15:2-5 Abram said, “Lord God what can you give me, since I remain childless, and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” Abram also said, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a servant born in my house will be my heir.”
Just then, the word of the Lord came to him. God said, “This man will not be your heir, but instead one who will come out of your own body will be your heir.” The Lord then brought him outside and said, “Now look toward the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “This is what your descendants will be like.”
Sarah’s a skeptic, and yet God blesses his people so richly through her. Just look at the stars and remember how God fulfills his promise to Abraham and Sarah, that their descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Sarah’s struggling to believe this will be true, God is faithful and richly blesses regardless.
At Christmas – a star appears. Abraham’s greatest son and savior is here. This story brings us again to our studies of Abraham and Sarah from the Bible Stories summer series. (The tent: sermon by Prof. Andy Schmidt with art here. The stars: another sermon by Prof. Andy Schmidt, art here)
A note from artist, Corissa Nelson on her use of the stars for Sarah
Impatiently Waiting
That wasn’t the first time God had promised descendants, but I was already old, and figured that maybe God didn’t mean for me to produce an heir for my husband. So I thought maybe I’d help the plan along. I decided to give my maidservant to my husband so she could produce for him an heir.
Reader: Genesis 16:3-4a After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her servant girl, Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. He went to Hagar, and she conceived.
Sarah: My impatience and failure to trust the Lord’s promises caused definite problems between my maidservant and me. But the Lord, even then, continued to teach me patience by letting me wait thirteen more years before he would repeat his promise.
Reader: Genesis 17:1,2,15,16 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and you, and I will make your descendants very numerous.”
…God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai anymore, but her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and even give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of many peoples will come from her.”
Sarah: The Lord was much more specific this time and included another, more important promise!
Reader: Genesis 17:19,21 God said, “No, Sarah, your wife, will bear a son for you. You shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. …But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear for you at this set time next year.”
I Laughed
The Lord in his wisdom came to visit soon after he made that beautiful promise. Sadly, I did not recognize him for who he was, so when he told my husband that I’d have my own child within a year, I laughed.
Reader: Genesis 18:10-12 One of the men said, “I will certainly return to you when this season comes around next year. Then Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Sarah was listening to this from the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well into old age. Sarah was past the age for childbearing. Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, will I have pleasure, since my Lord is also old?”
Sarah: Much to my shame, when caught in my unbelief, I tried to cover with a lie.
Reader: Genesis 18:13-15 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really give birth to a child though I am old?’ Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the set time next year I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son.”
Then Sarah denied it and said, “I did not laugh,” because she was afraid.
The Lord said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
Sarah: Despite my unbelief, impatience, and weak faith, my compassionate Lord was forgiving and patient. Exactly as he’d promised, one year later I was blessed to hold that precious little baby in my arms. We named our son “Isaac” which means “he laughs.”
Our son was given that name because when God told my husband that his long-awaited son would finally come, Abraham laughed. His was an expression of unbelievable joy. Abraham later told me he was thinking, “Everybody knows ninety-year-old women don’t have babies! But nobody told that to God!” Abraham laughed in joyful amazement.
When I held my son in my arms, I announced, “God has brought me laughter and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”
Reader: Genesis 21:1-3 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the set time which God had announced to him. Abraham named the son who was born to him—the son whom Sarah had borne to him— Isaac.
My sisters, learn from my example.
The Lord, in his wisdom, taught me patience and trust. He took me away from my family, from the only home I knew. He continued to bless Abraham and me even as we failed to trust him.
He heard me pray for many years for the blessing of a child. He heard me weep as I learned my servant had conceived. He felt my anguish as my husband named his son. He made many promises of his Son, which I never had a chance to see fulfilled.
He allowed me to feel the consequences of my failing trust, but he took my mistakes and turned them into good. I faced many trials, my faith failed at times, but he was there every moment, sustaining me, teaching me, loving me.
As you go through the rush and anxiety of this season, I hope you can learn from my mistakes and remember many things. He is there with you in everything. His answers to your prayers may be delayed. He may lead you in a direction you have not anticipated, one that you fear. He allows you to feel pain, but he continues to be with you.
He knows you falter in your faith. He knows every moment you do not trust him. As he never left me, he never leaves you. He is teaching you patience, as he taught me. He wants you to trust him in everything. He kept every promise he made to Abraham and me. He keeps his promises to you.
Though he does not come to you as he did to us, he is there. He has given you his Word, his promises, his Son. He promises he will never leave or forsake you. He is with you my sisters, every moment; sustaining, teaching, and loving you.
His greatest blessing
As great of a blessing as my son, Isaac, was to me, I had an even greater blessing. This is a blessing you can enjoy, too! God’s Son is also my Son! God promised my husband that all nations would be blessed through him. And that has happened through Jesus! Jesus is the descendant of my husband, Abraham, my son, Isaac, and my grandson, Jacob.
Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus are my physical heirs. Through faith in Jesus you have become God the Father’s spiritual heirs.
Reader: Galatians 3:28-29 There is not Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one and the same in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants and heirs according to the promise.
Sarah: I say it again, God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me!
This Advent season ladies, let’s fill our homes, churches and lives with joyful laughter!
Your sister in Christ,
Sarah
Song: One Small Child
- Adapted from Letters from Biblical Women written by Jackie Pudlo
Michael Zarling
For the first 8 years of my ministry, I served at Faith Lutheran Church, an exploratory congregation in Radcliff, KY. I presently serve at Epiphany Lutheran Church and Wisconsin Lutheran School (WLS) in Racine, WI. I am also very involved with our youth as the WLS head soccer coach and the head counselor for WELS Training Camp, a youth camp for 3rd – 9th graders. I have been married to Shelley for 20 years. Together we have 4 beautiful daughters – Abigail, Miriam, Lydia and Gabrielle. We also have 2 dogs – Messi and Mia – named after Lionel Messi and Mia Hamm (the Zarling family really likes soccer!)
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