Hannah

All in God’s Own Time.

Hannah Presents Samuel to Eli (Robert Barrett)

All in God’s Own Time.

Is that not just the simplest sentence to say and the hardest sentence to actually trust.

I rust that I can pray to God for something, and I also trust that He will action my request when He is ready and IF he is ready…

And there are so many things that I want so fervently.  And good things too!  I want my children to be well behaved citizens of the world.  I want my relationships with others to be warm and loving and welcoming.  I want to be able to provide for my family.  I want wars to end and persecution to cease.  I want loved ones to experience the Grace of conversion and come to God – completely and wholeheartedly.  All of these things I want, and yet, sometimes I cannot have those things at all…

In the Book of Samuel we are told that Hannah was barren.  She was unable to have children, and this was incredibly distressing to her. 

“There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.  He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.  Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord.  Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.  But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.  Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.  This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.  Her husband Elkanah would say to her, ‘Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?’” (1 Samuel 1:1-8).

I can feel the terrible anguish in Hannah.  How unhappy she was – for YEARS.  The one thing she prayed for she could not have…  And nothing comforted her – not the love of her husband or even the variety of blessings that she already had in her life.

And then one day – at the Holy Will of God, Hannah conceived the Prophet Samuel.  I can imagine her joy.  I can imagine her feeling that such a miracle was too wonderful to even discuss.  I can imagine Hannah was so overwhelmed at having her prayers heard that she would not have known how to hold herself.  What a wonderful time in her life.  How joyous.

I keep that image of Hannah in the front of my mind today as I wait for my own miracle.  And it seems to me, that ALL IN GOD’S OWN TIME is not a bad way to live – not a bad way to live at all…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.