This past year I have used a book of daily readings on the lives of Christian women throughout the ages. It has been most enlightening. These past weeks have been a concentration on the women of the nativity, beginning with Elizabeth and ending with Sarah. Wow, what a group of interesting and questionable women.
The point that seems to have resonated with me the most, is that not one single woman found themselves capable of what God had called them to do. Beginning and ending this series are old women well past childbearing age who were told they would get pregnant by an old man.
Elizabeth, we're told was "very old" and yet God gave her a son who grew up to be John the Baptist, the radical preacher who prepared people for Jesus' ministry. And the strange thing is that God revealed her conception and even the name of the baby to her husband instead of her. He didn't quite respond with "You're crazy" but he sure did question how something so absurd could happen.
Sarah's response may be like most of ours has been when God has led us to do something we saw as out of our realm of capability. She laughed! Of course she denied it, but God heard her and told her so.
Look at Mary, the mother of Jesus who was told she would become pregnant without ever having sex. Mary, extremely confused about the angel's message actually had the nerve to ask "HOW?" and "WHY ME?" Has anyone ever told you to not question God? Mary proved He is big enough to handle our questions.
What about Ruth. She had married a foreigner who up and died as did his brother and father, leaving her with her mother-in-law who wanted to go back to her homeland. Ruth then became the breadwinner with no way to care for her aging mother-in-law. However, this old woman had a plan that was considered scandalous at the time, and Ruth did what she directed. And it worked! She attracted the attention of the chosen landowner, they got married and had a son who turned out to be the grandfather of King David. Have you ever felt like an outsider being led to do something totally out of your comfort zone?
But wait, there's more. What about Bethsheba who was basically raped and impregnated by the king, who then had her husband killed, and the baby died? How did God use her through these sad, tragic circumstances outside her control? The king married her and God blessed her with another son who later became Israel's most prosperous king and wrote a whole book in the Bible about wisdom.
Women who may have seen themselves, and in many situations society agreed, as inadequate, sinners, totally unqualified, abused, too old, and doubters, were actually chosen by God to be part of His work in bringing a Savior into the world.
Sarah who laughed, later "believed that God would keep His promise" and her son, Isaac fulfilled that promise in her day. Generations later, another babe was born to a young woman who questioned yet was willing, and His name was Jesus.
As we go into this new year, remember that God can do "impossible" things through you as He has done through other women through the ages. It doesn't matter if we're too old, too young, too fat, too out-of-shape, too underqualified, or too sinful. He specializes in surprises.
So let us keep laughing with Sarah all year long as we watch God work in flabbergasting ways.
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