Sarah

By you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves This was the first promise God made to Abram in Genesis 12:3.  Throughout history we have seen that sometimes God calls holy people, sometimes He calls great sinners, but most of the time He calls the ordinary people.  I have deeply pondered what Abraham was really like, and, as most of us,  I have asked “why did God choose this man?”  What we should be asking is, “how can we learn to see as God sees?” In the first encounter, God gives Abram a command to leave his country and his relatives and go to the land God will show him.  Abram is obedient to God and from the fruit of obedience, Abram receives the gift of trust.  Once Abram passes through Canaan and reaches Shechem, he receives the second promise: “To your descendants I will give this land.” (Gn 12:7)  It does not happen right away, but waiting causes Abram to grow in patience as he continues to trust. Abram is a humble man, not putting himself first before others.  When conflicts arise because he and Lot have prospered so much that the land cannot support all their flocks and herds, Abram chooses to be the peacemaker and lets Lot choose the portion of land he wants and Abram takes the other portion.   Living in a land that is at war, with many kings battling for control, Abram finds out Lot and his people have been caught in the crossfire and have been taken captive and all they had has been stolen from them. Abram, a man of action, summoning both his courage and his trust in the Lord, roundes up his men and goes into battle, defeating the four kings and rescuing Lot and his people. In Abram’s third encounter with the Lord, God makes a covenant with him and tells Abram that his own son will be his heir. (Gn 15:7)  By this time, Abram and Sarai have waited many years for a child and Sarai is now past childbearing.  In all these years Abram has not cast her aside or taken other wives; he has been faithful to Sarai and loves her just as Christ loves his bride the Church.  In spite of Abram’s love, Sarai has her sorrows.  In a world in which a woman’s worth was determined by her beauty and her fecundity, Sarai is missing half the equation and what she perceives to be her failure weighs heavily on her.  She is consumed with longing for a child -- a longing that comes from maternal instinct, a longing that comes from wanting to give her beloved husband what he desires most, and a longing to see herself as a whole woman.  In her desperation, she pushes Abram into conceiving a child with her maid, but, in the end, choosing her own solution instead of waiting for God’s solution only makes her more miserable.   Yet God does not abandon Abram and Sarai. …