“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There in the tent,” he answered.
The Lord said, “I will certainly come back to you in a bout a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself: “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I have delight?”
But the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I am old?’ Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.”
Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid.
But he replied, “No, you did laugh.”
Genesis 18:9-15, CSV (emphasis mine)
I mean God created funny, but God didn’t tell Sarah a joke. He promised to fulfill a dream of hers that was actually impossible without His intervention.
A crazy dream that haunted her thoughts for years. A dream she had decided wouldn’t come true.
A dream that had an appointed time much longer than she expected, so she had already taken matters into her own hands and made her situation worse.
Hoping for this dream had become too painful.
So she laughed.
And God gave her space to laugh. In that space, He used her laughter to gently remind her that nothing is impossible for Him.
God doesn’t laugh at our doubt.
Like Sarah, sometimes we’re afraid to be honest about our unbelief. But God knows our hearts anyways, so the only person we hurt with our denial is ourselves.
I’ve laughed at God often when I think about my dream to be a writer–and actually make a living off of it.
I feel almost as ill-equipped to be a working writer as Sarah did to conceive a child. I’m not organized. Grandmothers with Facebook accounts know more about technology than me. The only thing I can be counted on to finish consistently is my side of fries.
We must allow ourselves to be transparent about our disbelief by laughing or crying or even shouting, and then humbly lean into God as he reaffirms His promises to our hearts.
We must push past our excuses and act as God strengthens our faith and resolve.
Sarah believed God and wasn’t disappointed. She isn’t remembered for laughing; she’s remembered for her faith.
By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was just past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.
Hebrews 11:11, CSV (emphasis mine)
I like to remember my namesake for her laughter though. She laughed again after she gave birth to Issac, but this laughter was out of her joy in her faithful God–and probably at the thought of being super old and having to raise a child.
Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
Genesis 21:6, CSV
Laughing when a promise or dream is fulfilled seems easier–more appropriate.
But I love to laugh, and I don’t want to wait.
I’m laughing as I go because it makes the journey more enjoyable and humor is my coping mechanism when life gets hard. And maybe it’s just me, but chasing seemingly impossible dreams is not easy.
I’d love for you to join me. We could all use a little more laughter in our lives.
The one with what I’m up to currently.