READ: Genesis 18:13-14
Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
I love laughter. It’s a pleasure to see people really letting rip and having a good laugh. Laughter can be sparked off by any number of things, but it is often sparked off by absurdity. We laugh at clowns because everything they do is ridiculous and turns our normal expectations of life upside down. Sarah’s laughter was for precisely this reason. She was about 100 years old, decades beyond child bearing age, and although she had longed for a child in earlier years she had long since got used to the idea that it wasn’t going to happen. And then three mysterious visitors turn up at Abraham and Sarah’s tent in the desert and inform them that she will give birth. The very thought was hilarious because it was so completely absurd.
But it was true. She was going to have a baby. And the explanation takes us to the heart of the nature of God. Nothing is too hard for him. For us such a thing would stay on the list of impossibilities but God is the creator of Heaven and Earth and for him such things are entirely possible. Mary found herself in exactly the same place when she was informed that she would give birth to Jesus. She had never slept with a man and she knew that that would make conception impossible. But the angel informs her that with God nothing is impossible and praise God that’s how it proved to be.
When Sarah gave birth to her son there was only one possible name for him – Isaac, which means ‘he laughs’. Sarah and all those around her had learnt a vital lesson and it’s one that we need to remember. As we live for God day by day we need to remember never to put limits on what he can do. Amazing as it sounds God is the God of the impossible.
QUESTION: When have you seen God work in seemingly impossible ways?
PRAYER: Great God of Creation, help me to learn from this story and not to put a limit on what you can do. Amen.

Released on 18 Jan 2021