15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.” (Genesis 17)
Abraham had been waiting, trusting, hoping for a son. He had one, but not the one he had been waiting and hoping for; he had one by doing it his way. Now it was time for him to receive God's promise - the son He had promised to give. Abraham laughed. But it wasn't so much a joyful laugh as a mocking one: "That's funny, Lord, really funny...", as he continued to view Ishmael as the son of promise. He had no appreciation for God's sense of humor. Often neither do we. We plan and plot and push, and think we have "received" God's blessing, when in fact we've done it all wrong. But the joke is on us; we've done it all wrong; God has a much better plan. Can we laugh at ourselves? We should - and at what a sense of humor God has. But especially the great love, mercy and greater plan He has, which we really do not deserve. May we see, and appreciate God's sense of humor in our lives today.
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