4.) December 2, 2020 Abraham and Sarah Gen 15: 4-5, 17: 6-7, 18:1, 9-10a
Then the word of the LORD came to him: No, that one will not be your heir; your own offspring will be your heir. He took him outside and said: Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so, he added, will your descendants be. I will make you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings will stem from you. I will maintain my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oak of Mamre, as he sat in the entrance of his tent, while the day was growing hot. Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There in the tent,” he replied. One of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son.”
(Abraham and Sarah are our parents in faith, and the parents of the Jews, and Muslims, too)
I heard the prediction that I would have a baby—a son. I just had to laugh. It was ludicrous to think I could have a baby. I was too old, and so was Abraham. But I longed to hold a child in my arms. Abraham had told me about the promise to have descendants as plentiful as the stars of the night sky. We believed it would happen and for it to happen, I would have to bear a child. It would be a miracle, but Abraham and I trusted. When the visitors returned, we had a son.
Thought: Help me to trust that God will keep faith.