Bearing Love: Sarah Laughed

Now Sarah said,

“God has brought laughter for me;

everyone who hears will laugh with me.”

- Genesis 21:6

In our first story, we learn from Sarah’s story that part of Advent (and ultimately Kingdom) preparation is laughter.

Read: Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7

I hate that Sarah’s reaction to this incredulous news that she was going to be a mother at 90 years old is perceived so negatively. At least that’s the way I have always heard it preached. How dare she laugh? It is even portrayed as a failure of faith.

I can only imagine what it has been like through her life to hope for a child. She watched friends and family around her having their own children. They complained about parenting problems she only hoped to have. Month after month, year after year, waiting and wondering. Sarah could not have had it easy. Then, she watched her husband delight in having a son with another woman (even if at her request), and she once again wondered, what is wrong with me? To be fair, she didn’t handle her complex emotions and pain well, and it brought out a cruel, uncaring side in her.

Even still, from someone who was so wounded and worn down, she laughed.

I feel like laughter, the really good kind of laughter, seems to make space within our souls. It bubbles up from within us. It can’t be contained. Sarah gets this image of what it would be like to be a mother, and even though she keeps the hope of that image at a distance, the hope is there. The laughter creates the space. Dare she let herself hope for a child now?

The laughter also creates space for connection. Her laughter connects to Abraham’s laughter. I think we too quickly forget that Abraham falls to the floor laughing at the same prophecy in Genesis 17.

Her laughter connects her to this messenger. He is speaking about her until her laughter directs his speech to her.

And in the birth of her son, her laughter connects her to God. Isaac is a gift of joy and laughter that comes directly from a God who does the laughable. So much of the kingdom we see in Jesus’ ministry is absurd. It is laughable.

In Advent we celebrate how laughable the incarnation is. It is laughable that God would come as a baby, embracing the whole human experience. It is laughable that a King would be born to this couple, who aren’t wealthy and have little status. It is laughable that the Holy birth would happen in such a common, unholy place.

Advent celebrates that God has brought laughter for us.

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Consider Laughter in this interview of Jennifer’s birth story. You can follow her journey @mybeautifuldsjourney on Facebook and Instagram.

Blessed Advent!

Rev. Haley Grace

Resources:

Creating with God by Sarah Jobe