Genesis 21: God's Big Plans and Sarah's Laughter

Sometimes we hear about a huge idea.  And we laugh.  When my kids tell me they want to earn $100 by making a lemonade stand, I chuckle to myself.  When a local youth minister wants to hold an event that 100,000 people will come to, I smile.  When my golf buddy tells me his goal is to break 80, I snicker.  Why is it that we laugh in the face of a great dream or a surprisingly large goal?

Defense mechanism.

The though of failure doesn't hurt so bad if you can laugh.

Contempt for the idea.

The thought of all the useless work we are going to have to do, only to see our resources squandered.

Acknowledging the reality of a pipe dream when we see it.

Maybe if I laugh my friend won't see how I really feel about this idea.

Blow it off.

I can't say exactly which of these responses was in Sarah's laughter when she first heard the idea that God would give her a son.  I have often assumed that she found the idea totally preposterous.  Her laughter was probably a mixture of her own realism and her contempt for anyone who suggest such a thing.  Aren't they smart enough to know that it isn't possible? (Genesis 18:12)

And yet God said it would be so.

And he reminded Abraham and Sarah over and over again that it would happen as he had promised.

• Genesis 15:4. a son coming from your own body will be your heir.
• Genesis 17:19. Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
• Genesis 18:10. Then the Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

 And so, Sarah (and Abraham) heard God's plans.  And they both chuckled to themselves:  How can this be?  Well, alright, if you say so.

To their credit, they believed God could do such miracles.  And that faith led to changed names and lives.

And a change in their laughter.


Genesis 21:6-7 says

Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

And her laughter was no longer cynical or dismissive.  Instead, she burst forth with an expression of joy.

She laughed in what God could do, and did.

Laughed in healing within God's plan.

Laughed in the hope of a future.

Laughed shared with a community that knows what hope and healing are found in God. 

What a great joy, knowing that God can turn our cynicism into hope, our hurts into healing, our frustration into a bright future.