Sarah
“She laughed — and yet received.”
The lifetime of a woman who left her homeland at sixty-five and bore the promised son at ninety.
Sarah grew up in the settled city of Ur of the Chaldeans. Her life began to be shaken when her husband Abraham heard 'the word of the Lord' and had to leave without even knowing where he was going. She was sixty-five — an age at which most people's lives have already settled — yet she gave up everything and left, to live her whole life as the wife of a nomad in tents.
A promised child was said to be coming, but ten years passed with no answer. In the end she tried to fulfill the promise with her own hands. She sent her maidservant Hagar to her husband, and Ishmael was born. But that brought not peace but the start of conflict. Years later, three travelers arrived at her tent: 'This time next year Sarah will have a son.' Now ninety years old, she laughed inside the tent. But the One who heard that laughter asked, 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?'
The following year she truly bore a son. She named him Isaac — 'laughter.' The laughter that had once mocked became the laughter of the deepest joy. She lived to be a hundred twenty-seven, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah in Hebron. Though she wandered her whole life in tents, the one cave where she was buried became the starting point of a nation. A promise that seemed too late to be possible any longer was fulfilled at exactly the right time.
She left her homeland with Abraham. The long-awaited promise broke into laughter within her.
Defining Moments
The events that made this person who they were
Following Her Husband Out of Ur of the Chaldeans
At sixty-five, she leaves her homeland to follow a husband who does not even know where he is going. A decision to give up, at a woman's most settled stage of life, the greatest security she had ever known before the greatest unknown.
Laughing Behind the Tent
When three visitors say, 'Sarah will have a son next year,' she, now ninety years old, laughs inside the tent. A promise she had come to believe was simply too late.
Isaac — Knowing the Name 'Laughter'
At ninety she bears a son and names him Isaac ('laughter'). The laughter that once mocked becomes the laughter of the deepest joy.
Personality
The colors revealed through their story
One Who, After Long Waiting, Tries to Solve It Her Own Way
After ten years of waiting without an answer, she sends Hagar to her husband. The impatience of trying to fulfill the promise with her own hands.
A Weakness That Joins in Deception Out of Fear
In Egypt and Gerar, she agrees to her husband's request to say, 'She is my sister.' Not a strong figure alone, but someone who fears and wavers together with him.
Yet a Faithfulness That Follows to the End
She moved her tent and lived her whole life as a nomad. From age sixty-five to a hundred twenty-seven, she never left her place.
★ Strengths
- Faithfulness to leave together
◐ Shadow
- The moment when waiting turns into doubt
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