If I should ever get married, and if I should have a child, and if it should be a boy... then I imagine I'd have a strong preference to name him Isaac. I know when I was a kid, I heard the story about Sarah laughing when Abraham was told that she'd have a son at their age, and as a kid I always imagined it as a jovial sort of laugh. But being 30 and just as single as always, I think I understand the laugh better as the sort of cynical laugh you use to try and mask your deep disappointment when dreams go unmet, and someone suggests that after countless years of living with that disappointment that everything will change. I know if someone told me that the scenario above were going to happen within a year, I'd laugh too - in just the way I expect Sarah laughed.
And so, should it ever actually happen, I like the name Isaac as a reminder that sometimes God can make the laughably impossible possible. For now, though, all I have is the laugh.
11 comments:
What you desire is of your own design.
The story of Abraham and Sarah is about what God had planed for them, not about fulfilling their desires.
We shouldn’t wait for God’s plans to unfold. Rather, we should move forward and put ourselves in His way. Be present and life will take care of you.
If I read your comment correctly, you seem to be saying that for me (or, by extension, anyone) to have a desire is to be relying on our own plans to accomplish it.
You go on to say that Abraham and Sarah, I assume, had no such desires and were just carried along on the wings of providence - that is, that the story is "about what God had planned for them..."
In all interactions between man and God, there are two points of view. Certainly, the whole story of Abraham and Sarah is a story of God working out his designs for blessing the entire world, in which they play a role.
But they don't know this story as we see it. They are childless nomads, in a world where that is unacceptable. Lot's duaghters illustrate for us in a timely way just what it means to be childless in that time, and how desperate someone might be to avoid that.
So at the moment of Sarah's laugh, she does not see the story as we see it. She does not see Isaac, Esau, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, or David. All she sees is a withered old body, and the promise that Abraham will have a son.
Their desires and God's plan, as we see later, lined up... but I don't consider it inappropriate to suggest that they had desires. While in my own life I would not claim a promise that what I desire will be fufilled (and so the analogy ends), the name for me represents the fact that I do not know the future - as Sarah didn't, which is (I think) the source of her laughter - and that what seems impossible to me may not actually be impossible after all.
However, I'm not (I hope) sitting around letting life pass me by while I wait for my impossible dream. I am where I am, how I am for a reason. And while God sees fit to have me here, I pray for the grace that will see even this used by God for good.
I totally love this!
To the extent yopedro's comment has meaning, it's half-right and half-wrong. Mostly it's jibberish.
Have I got a girl for you!
Alas, I'm notoriously (well, in my own mind) picky, and stubborn enough that I'm dead set on doing things my own way, however unsuccessful a strategy it's been to date.
hahaha, oh gosh, I am so with you on that last comment, Dave. =) Few things irritate me more than matchmakers, however well-meaning they may be. Ack.
When I read "Have I got a girl for you", for some reason I didn't realize it was meant as match-making. It came across as someone offering up a baby girl in response to your talk about a potential future baby boy. Needless to say, I was confused. Story of my life.
I made that girl-for-you comment. It was a JOKE! lol.
On matchmaking: I'm not opposed to it in principle, but I'm not fond of the normal means(I'll get you two on a date, and you can see how it goes). I don't like this because I'm not a fan of rejection - whether it be being rejected or doing the rejecting - and that seems like a situation that would be reasonably low-success. I don't mind being introduced to people, or even having people make suggestions. But I'd like the chance to get to know people first, and not have the basis of an introduction be "You should be dating."
On the joke: I kind of read it that way... but on a random comment, it's hard to know for sure. If I assume sincerity and it's a joke, then the joke's on me and we can all laugh. But if I assume a joke and it's intended seriously, then I'm either put in an uncomfortable place, or the well-meaning person is offended.
I like the name Isaac, I think it would be sweet to name your boy Isaac.
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