Here’s a re-run for a few of you who I’ve shared this with…I decided that I should just go ahead and post it on my blog.
The Proverbs 31 woman, she likes to haunt me. And then a few days ago I meet her head on once more.
Later that day I was going over some of the verses in my mind, and somehow verse 25 came out as “And she laughs at the future.” It took me awhile to catch that I was remembering it incorrectly. But when I did, I realized something.
Proverbs 31, she smiled at the future. Me, I laugh at the future.
Those of you who know me well, know that I do love to laugh. Laughter is good medicine, laughter is a gift from the Lord. But not this laughter. This laughter was not synonymous with smiling. This was the laughter found in another part of the Bible, when three men met with Abraham.
‘Then they said to him [Abraham], “Where is Sarah you wife?” And he said, “there, in the tent.” He said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing. Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” (Genesis 18:9-12)
Sarah wasn’t smiling at her future, she was laughing – mocking. And so with Proverbs 31 fresh in my mind I wondered why, in overhearing this promise, she wasn’t filled with hope but her response was to disbelieve.
So questions filled my head.
Why could she not believe that there was something good in store for her? Was it years of waiting and hoping and not receiving? Was it a bitter heart already full of disappointment? Did she wonder why should SHE be so blessed? Or why would God even look at her to give her what she had wanted for so long? Did she feel presumptuous? Was she afraid of getting her hopes up and being deeply disappointed?
How is it that we can continue to smile at the future, after so much of our life is already in the past? When the future doesn’t seem like it could possibly be good? I don’t know….I do know that there’s a way, and I’m pretty sure it has a lot to do with grace…
So what happened after Sarah laughed? Her action was called out, and she was corrected when she tried to deny it. But you know what, the promise didn’t change. When I am faithless, He remains faithful (2 Tim 2:13).
And while I’m not in a place to be able to sympathize fully with Sarah’s position, I can see where I don’t look to the future, smiling at WHATEVER God has in store for me. I want to work on this, though I know from my thought patterns it may be hard to change. But that is no excuse.
“Strength and dignity are her clothing,
And she smiles at the future.” ~ Prov 31:25
“And blessed is she who believed that there WOULD BE a fulfillment
of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”
Luke 1:45
