Hannah

By the time that you read this, Mother’s Day will have come and gone for another year. My perspective on the day has changed through the years as my own situation has changed. Moving from being a daughter to being a mom myself… moving from having a houseful of boys to having the house empty again….moving into the time of missing my own mom…no doubt the day means a little something different to each of us.

The story of one particular mother has been in my thoughts for a few days. Her name is Hannah. Her story is in 1 Samuel.

Hannah wasn’t in the best situation. She had a husband who loved her but she also had competition. Her husband had a second wife and that wife had children. Hannah had none. That was an issue.

It was an issue that drove Hannah to pray. Before she had a child, she said of herself that she was praying out of “great anguish and grief.”

“In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord.” (1 Sam.1:10)

She not only prayed… she made a vow. If God would give her a son, she would give him back. Literally. He would serve in the temple.

God heard. God answered. Hannah had a son. For a few years she stayed home from the annual trek to Shiloh where the family worshipped. As she held the babe close, I wonder if she tried to come up with a way to get out of her vow to give the boy back to God. Was she counting the days with a heavy heart….

But, Hannah kept her vow.

“After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was . . . and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh.” (vs.24) . . . and she left him there . . . she left him with the priest Eli. The same Eli who, when he saw Hannah pouring out her heart to God in prayer, thought that she was drunk. The same Eli whose own sons were running wild.

Oh, Hannah…how could you?

Hannah’s story didn’t end with dropping her son off with Eli. She sewed a robe for him that she took to give to him on their yearly visit. No doubt he was always on her heart . . . with each robe, with each stitch, a prayer . . . God be with my boy . . . God watch over my boy . . . and yet somehow prayed with out anguish . . . without grief . . . 

Have you ever been where Hannah was when we first meet her? Crying out with anguish a grief . . . for your sons . . . for your daughters . . . are you there right now?

Hannah moved from anguish and grief to rejoicing. How did she get there? How could she let him go? First – she gave her son to God.

“So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life will he be given over to the Lord . . .” (1Sam.1:28a)

Then – she trusted the One to whom she gave her son.

“There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no rock like our God.” (1Sam.2:2)

I don’t want to give a pat answer or make this seem easy, but really we can only do what Hannah did. Give our kids to God . . . and the trust the One we have given them to. If you are like me, this is not a one time thing. It’s everyday. Sometimes every hour . . . every moment . . . but we can . . . because there is no rock like our God.

Ruth