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| Since I'm talking about sweet little boys in this blog, I had to include pictures of my favorites! |
Disclaimer: Today, my take away was not exactly the overall point
of this passage, so if you are interested in a more technical breakdown, I’d
refer you to a good commentary (try Biblegateway.com). Instead, as I read, two verses stuck out
heavily to me, and I wanted to blog about them.
I do not believe I am compromising Paul’s point in these scriptures, but
I will say that he has more to say than simply what I blog, and it might be
worth checking out if you are interested.
When Andy and I decided we were ready to have children, I
was READY. I am a serious type-A
personality, and when we decided we wanted to be pregnant, I wanted to be
pregnant immediately. It didn’t happen
immediately. In the broad scheme of
things, and in light of the true problems with fertility that others have, we
didn’t wait long, but we definitely waited longer than I anticipated. It was long enough for me to have a little
sip of how bitter it is to deeply desire a baby and to be staring, yet again,
at another negative pregnancy test. It
was enough time for me to share my fears and my hurts with others and hear
flippant responses. It was enough time
to have people innocently ask me when Andy and I might start a family all the
while knowing how deeply I wished we already had.
I have also had friends who have wanted children for years
longer than they anticipated. I know
what it is to be down on my knees with a woman who is as close as a sister
begging God for her baby. I know what it
thank God for what will be as we wipe tears because we are still in the place
of what is. I have held other close
friends as they ached for another child lost to miscarriage, and I have prayed
relentlessly with them as their bodies bore the stress of trying to carry children
to term.
I have also held miracles.
I met my son after a difficult delivery, and even through tears and pain
and utter exhaustion, I stared unbelievingly into his tiny face, and I
recognized God. When I hold him now, I
am overwhelmed with what love can be. I
have held another sweet boy whose life I know without a doubt will be used by
God. He is covered in years of prayers,
and when I think of him and the events leading to his birth, I cannot help but
be overwhelmed by the glory God shows us in this child. He is a bright shining star of how God’s ways
are always higher and better than ours. And
I love another little boy whose mother is like my sister. He runs and plays now, and sometimes I watch
him, and I see God. His life is a
miracle, and his mother had such faith that God would carry her through her
pregnancy with him. She sacrificed so
much of herself to carry him and to make sure he would be healthy and
whole. She believed God had promised him
even when others doubted another child should come to her. He is a miracle.
Today, I read the end of Galatians 4, and two verses
reminded me of these boys I love and of their mothers. The first is verse 27, and it says, “Rejoice,
O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into a joyful shout, you who have never
been in labor! For the desolate woman
now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband!” I know a little about wanting a child, and I
do not know anyone who is breaking into a joyful shout when she is looking at
another negative pregnancy test she wished were positive. In that situation, it is really hard to find
joy.
Another woman in a similar position knew about the
difficulty of finding joy. Verse 23
says, “The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the
fulfillment of God’s promise. But the
son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his
promise.” This passage is specifically
talking about Abraham’s two children. God
promised Abraham that he would have children as numerous as the stars in the
sky. And yet his wife, Sarah, continued
to be barren. She went for years and
years and years without babies.
Menopause came and went and still no babies. The promise became difficult for her to
believe, so Sarah made her own way by giving Abraham her servant girl, Hagar,
as his wife. In those days, children
born to servants could be considered as the wife’s own children. Her plan worked, and Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. But Ishmael was not God’s promise, and
ultimately he only caused heartache for Sarah.
Taking matters into our own hands usually does that. Despite Sarah’s actions, God fulfilled his
promise and brought Abraham a son, Isaac, who was born of Sarah’s own
body. The body she believed had long ago
failed her. The body she believed
incapable of producing children. The
body which, by anyone else’s standards, WAS incapable of making babies. God had made a promise, and he fulfilled his
promise. Isaac became the father to the
Jewish nation – a people as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Sarah is a testament that God can do anything, and we should
take joy in what he did for her and others like her because his miracles reveal
his power. When I look at the little
boys in my life, I can see that God is good and that he works in wondrous
ways. When I consider how tightly my
friends held God’s promises, and then how they held their children in those same
hands, I know God comes through. I can
look at their joy and have joy that he will come through for others who are
still waiting – for a child or spouse or a healing or anything else.
This is not to say that I believe all the desires of our
hearts will be met as we expect. I don’t
believe that. We live on a sinful earth,
which means that we will face hurt and heartache and loss. But I do believe God will do what he says he
will do, and I think Sarah and Abraham are certainly an example of that. So, when we know God has promised a spouse or
a child or a healing, we can have faith and joy that he will come through
exactly as he has promised. The wait may
be longer than we hope, but he never fails.
I also believe that even if we haven’t been given a promise,
God is still good. There is a verse that
says, “Delight yourselves in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your
heart.” I believe that when we truly
delight in the Lord, he will meet our desires in a deeper way than we imagine. I know a woman who desired to be pregnant,
but God has revealed that path will be impossible for her. He has instead shown her and her husband a
path to adoption. Knowing their
individual stories, I can see how God will use their unique backgrounds to make
them the perfect parents to pour into children whose biological parents are
unable to meet their needs. God is not
meeting the desires of their hearts as they imagined, but I believe he will
meet those desires in a deeper, richer way than they would have expected.
I have another friend who deeply desires a spouse. She wants companionship and love. She wants a family of her own. I don’t know what ‘God’s promises are to her,
but I do know that right now he is using her in beautiful ways as a single
person to be available to younger women.
She disciples high school students and spreads joy and love, and she is
loved greatly and by many in return. I
know that she desires a husband, but I also know that because she is delighting
herself in God, he is making her life full.
The ways God fulfills our desires are not necessarily the
ways we would fulfill our desires.
Isaiah 55:8-9 speaks beautifully to that truth. God may not work in our time or according to
our plan, but his ways are always higher and better and more beautiful. And when he has revealed his plan, we should
not doubt no matter how impossible the promise may seem. I know this verse is speaking of a promise
God made that was not pretty or joyful, but I still love how Habakkuk 2:3
always reminds us that God will do what he says he will do. It says, “For still the vision awaits its
appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will
surely come; it will not delay.” The
waiting is hard. But the promises are
true, and God does not delay, and he does not forget.
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