Just Laugh

“Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh?’”  Genesis 18:13

I would have chuckled, and so would you. 

After many decades of marriage, the table in Abraham’s tent was still set for two, and since he had fathered a son with a family servant, the fingers of fault pointed at his wife, Sarah.  By eighty-nine candles on the cake, most women might have gotten over it, but the stigma and sting of an empty cradle still haunted Sarah’s heart.

One day three men showed up at Abraham’s place around noon, and ever the hospitable host, he invited them to come in, cool off, and chow down. During a picnic under a shade tree, they asked Abraham, “Where’s your wife?” “Over there, in the tent,” he replied.  Then one of the men (who was God in the guise of a guy) said, “I’ll be back in a year, and by then your wife will have a baby boy”(Genesis 18:10).

The eavesdropping Sarah could hardly believe her ears. In fact, she couldn’t. She laughed to herself as she thought, “After I’m too tired and Abe’s too old, will we now be blessed with a little bundle?” When God asked why she had laughed, Sarah lied and said she hadn’t. God didn’t let her off the hook, but He didn’t let her down either. Less than a year later, at ninety years old, Sarah cuddled her newborn son and then handed the crying kid off to his century year-old daddy.

They named him Isaac, which means “he laughs.”  “Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me”(Genesis 21:6). No matter the number of sleepless nights and no matter the piles of dirty diapers, you can be sure Sarah never stopped shaking her head and smiling.

Embrace your Isaacs—those running-around, right-before-you reminders that sometimes God does something so hilariously incredible that all you can do is shake your head, shout your praise—and laugh!