God Has Brought Me Laughter

From Amelie, with Love

Dear Friends,

Today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures has always been one of my favorites. In it, three “visitors” pop in at Abraham’s tent in the heat of the day and, as was the custom of his people, he invites them in and serves up a feast.  Just as soon as they settle in and make themselves comfortable, these three guests let Abraham know that his wife Sarah is to expect a child.  Overhearing this, Sarah laughs out loud in disbelief, because she way beyond childbearing years.  And yet, to everyone’s surprise, she conceives, and bears a son whom she names Isaac, which in Hebrew means “he laughs.  Her son of laughter would always remind her of her own disbelief, when she laughed at God's promise, but also testify to how God fulfilled his promise and acted in her personal history despite improbable circumstances.

So here’s the reason I love this story so much. When I was approaching 30, after trying to conceive a child for five years, my husband and I finally came to accept what my doctors had been telling us – that I would likely not be able to bear children.  We were ok with it, sort of.  About a year after that, I began to feel some strange symptoms and after ruling out just about every virus, it dawned on my physician to give me a pregnancy test.  We couldn’t believe it.  I was about three months pregnant.  I laughed in disbelief. My first son Channing was born that year, and after three miscarriages over the course of seven years I was able to bear two more sons. 

Though my situation was by far not the same as Sarah’s in the story of Genesis, my experience and sentiments were close. Whereas at first, Sarah brought dismissiveness to God's promise, in the end the tables were turned: "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age" (21:1–7).

 This weekend I am in Toronto to meet the parents of Channing’s fiancée, Emily, a brilliant, beautiful woman who has brought the him kind of joy that every mother hopes for her child.  She is of Chinese descent, and we have gathered with her parents for a Tea Ceremony, an ancient betrothal ritual.

I share this with you because I have a sense that each of you has had an experience that reminds you of God’s power to act in the most impossible or hopeless circumstances in ways you could never ask for or imagine.

 So, you better believe I am laughing this weekend.  And I cannot think of a better way to prepare my heart for our Juneteenth Celebration tomorrow.

In Christ,

Amelie+