We Plan, God Laughs - January 29

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 55; PM Psalm 138, 139:1-17(18-23); Gen. 18:1-16Heb. 10:26-39John 6:16-27

Today’s Reflection

The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’ But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’; for she was afraid. He said, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’ –Genesis 18: 13-15

The Genesis passage appointed for today has so many layers of intrigue. First, these three mysterious figures wander onto the scene, under the oaks of Mamre. Abraham rushes around to show them hospitality—a place to cool off under the shade of the oak tree, water to wash their feet, and a meal to satisfy their hunger. Some Bible commentaries mention that these three may even have been angels. At minimum they do play an angelic role, that of messengers, in the story, as one of them foretells that Sarah will bear a son.

What I have always identified with in this passage, though, is the part when Sarah overhears the men’s conversation with Abraham and actually laughs out loud when she hears one of them declare that she will have a son. God overhears her laugh, and asks why she laughed and, by extension, why she didn’t believe that God would do this wonderful thing for her and Abraham. What follows is an awkwardly funny moment when Sarah then denies that she laughed, and God says, “Oh yes, you did!” It’s funny to me because well, duh, of course God heard you laugh, Sarah—God sees and hears and knows all things!

But I also love the relatability of this scene—of a very real, flawed human being, Sarah, who has gone through her share of disappointments and hard times and who has made her own mistakes (see my reflection on Sarah and Hagar from Wednesday of this week). She’s spent her whole life hoping and praying for a blessing, in her case, a child—and now that she’s past the point when it’s biologically possible, now some stranger is telling her she’s going to bear a child within the next year? Laughable! And yet, that’s exactly what God has in store for Sarah and Abraham—a long-awaited son, the fulfillment of their hopes and dreams, just when she believed it was too late for her to have this happy blessing of love and new life.

You may have heard the line “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans,” which is attributed to writer-director Woody Allen. The source of this wisdom, prior to Allen’s version, is a Yiddish proverb: “We plan, God laughs.” The idea is that we humans are often very near-sighted, only being able to see what is right there in front of us—and, related to this, we are very limited sometimes in what we can believe or imagine is possible. But the moral of the story that I draw from Sarah’s laughing at God’s plans (rather than God laughing at her plans) is that we humans often underestimate what is possible. But recall that elsewhere in Scripture, we clearly hear Jesus himself say that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

I can look back on my life and see times where I’ve been too cautious in what good I believed God was capable of working in my life and the lives of those I love. But, of course, nothing is impossible with God. As Paul also declared in 1 Corinthians 2 (alluding to words from Isaiah), “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Becky+

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.  (Ephesians 3:20,21)

Questions for Self-Reflection

Have you ever had what, at the time, seemed like an impossible hope or dream that later came to fruition? Did you begin to lose hope or lose sight of your dream? How did you respond when you learned that your dream might just come true after all?

Daily Challenge

Write a letter to God, which is another way of praying to God. Express to God some deeply held hope or dream that you have for your future. Ask God to give you the faith to believe that it could become a reality, and to give you the gifts of patience, perseverance, and discernment as you continue to wait for the time when the dream can be realized.

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