(From AWC-Part 1)  “…He knew she was praying.  He just didn’t know how her prayers were about to change their lives.”

(AWC-Part 2) Sarai was unable to bare children for Abram.  As Sarah read her story in Genesis she knew how Sarai must have felt.  Most women long to give birth to a child, a bit of their husband, a bit of themselves, a bit of their families all blended together into a whole new human being who would grow and develop their own personality, their own unique self.  Sarai must have felt a great deal of pressure for clearly she didn’t trust God to fulfill His promise to Abram through the birth of a biological child with herself; in fact, she blamed God for her barrenness.  In her human understanding, she had tried to help matters along a bit by insisting Abram take her maidservant and have a child with her which Sarai would raise as her own.  It was not an uncommon  practice in that day and time.

Only once Hagar became pregnant with Abram’s child Hagar began to despise Sarai and she complained to Abram who told her that Hagar was her servant to do with as she pleased.  Sarai mistreated Hagar to the point Hagar ran away.  Sarah, as she sat reading this story in her Bible, knew that would be her temptation if she and Kevin had decided to ask someone to carry their child for them.  For her, seeing another woman pregnant with Kevin’s baby would be painful and the fear that the woman would not follow through with any promises or contracts and made this avenue seem terribly risky and terribly wrong.  As Sarah read the rest of the account of Sarai who was renamed Sarah by God and Abram who was renamed Abraham and Isaac who was eventually born to them in their extreme old age she felt within her spirit God would not be giving Kevin and her such a miracle.

Not like Sarah and Abraham, Rebekah and Isaac, Rachel and Jacob, Hannah and Elkanah, or Elizabeth and Zechariah.  Sarah knew in her heart God was telling her there was a way for her and Kevin to have a family but it would not be by opening her womb.  She placed her hand on her flat stomach and it felt so empty, her heart felt hollow and she wasn’t sure she could bear the emptiness.   With a clarity that hurt so badly it felt as if actual knives were cutting up her insides Sarah remembered the miscarriages, three in all and she wept again for those precious babies she and Kevin would never know here on this side of eternity.

As she wept she felt God’s arms around her and she heard His voice assuring her He would make a way for her to be a mother, for Kevin to be a parent.  He would do so, not by means of medical technology but by a way that would bring Him glory and honor.  A way that would meet not just Sarah and Kevin’s needs but the needs of the children as well.

By the time Kevin had showered and dressed Sarah was downstairs cooking their breakfast.  When Kevin reached for her hand to say grace before they ate Sarah held on just a little longer, looked him in the eyes and he was startled to see her smile, that it wasn’t just a smile she plastered on her face to help him feel better but a smile coming from her heart, lighting up her face, shining from her eyes.   That and the words she said next actually caused his breath to catch.

“Kevin, God has promised me we will be parents.  He didn’t tell me how or when just that He was going to make a way.”  Sarah released his hand and her smile broke into giggles at the look on Kevin’s face, “Ah sweetheart, I’ve not gone around the bend, He is just asking us to have faith in Him.”

Kevin nodded and felt his own spirit relax within him.  He’d have to make this as serious a cause for prayer as Sarah, Kevin knew that, but he also knew God had nudged his heart yesterday when they had left the doctor’s office with Dr. Moran’s news weighing on them like the world’s troubles.  However it came to be, they wouldn’t be seeking a solution in a doctor’s office this they both knew for sure.

To be continued,,,,