“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” After years of waiting on God to give them children, Sarai and Abram decided to pursue their own plan. Sarai gave her slave girl Hagar to Abram and she bore him a son named Ishmael. As Hagar and Ishmael fled from Sarai’s mistreatment, God showed up, and promised his plan for the boy. Then Hagar named him, “The God who sees.”
Even when we forget God, he remembers his promises to us. Abram had believed God and God had credited to him as righteousness (15:6). Now, God remembered his covenant with Abram and renamed him Abraham, “father of many nations.” Abraham’s part of the covenant was the sign of circumcision. God’s part was to multiply Abraham’s descendants.
Every time I look at the Old Testament window in our church and see the grains of sand, I remember that God kept his promise to Abraham, naming his future son, “Isaac,” meaning laughter. Abraham laughed at the thought. So later did Sarah. How preposterous that they would become parents in their nineties. When Isaac was born, God had the last laugh.
Children still make us smile. Our three-year-old granddaughter told me about the mud I tracked into the house, “That is not cool, dude.” Tonight, I watched children joyfully dancing before the Lord in worship. I had to smile. To this day, God is keeping his promise to Abraham. As we believe God, like our father in the faith, Abraham, God credits our faith to us as righteousness. Father Abraham has many sons and daughters. More every day. A boy named Harrison professed his faith in Christ publicly on Sunday. God smiles, the angels in heaven rejoice, and we laugh with great joy!
