Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” Genesis 21:6 (Genesis 21-1-7)
Sarai/Sarah is known as ‘Abraham’s wife,’ barren and childless. In straight terms, Sarah is insignificant. In order to protect himself, Abraham twice asks beautiful Sarai to title herself as his sister, (which she was) and submit bodily to a ruler of a foreign state. The Bible doesn’t say how she felt, but betrayal and violation must have passed through her mind. Both times, God intervened and saved Sarah while inflicting pain and discomfort on her offenders.
Common culture allowed Sarah to give her handmaiden, Hagar, to her husband in order to secure a child and family line, but having done this with Abraham’s consent, Sarah was disappointed and grief-stricken. God wasn’t happy either. It wasn’t His plan. When God brought news that she would give birth to the father of the covenant nation Sarah laughed in disbelief. But when she held her precious baby in her arms, she realized God can do anything and her joy overflowed into laughter.
Sarah stands singularly unique as a Biblical woman who’s name was changed by God. Her story isn’t perfect obedience, but it is a story of a faith that outweighed defeat. God’s divine promises have Sarah at the heart of them, and her marginal status became a very important part of the Israel’s history.
In the darkest moments of your story, God HAS NOT forgotten you. He has a plan, but faith is the only means to experience it.
Have a Blessed Day,
Gretchen
P.S. It is worth noting in chapter 21:8-20, that God shows kindness to Hagar, the slave, and her son, the outcast child, Ismael. They have both been tossed and toiled at the whim of others, but God loves and provides.