Matriarchs of Genesis: Sarah

Oh Sarah, how I wish I knew more about you and your side of the story. Your husband decides to leave his homeland, most likely yours too, and to start wandering through out the country side. Were you okay with it? Did you protest, say that you didn't want to go, or did you say "wherever you go, I'll go"? Oh, and you mean so much to Abram that he is willing to put your life at risk to save his own by calling you his sister and not his wife. In fact, he valued you so much that he did it twice! Yet, you were the first wife and the only person you had to answer to was Abram. You helped manage his household, the servants, workers, slaves. You had the status, but not always the circumstances to back up your placement within your own household. You were considered barren.

How long did it take for you to start to panic over not having a child? You must have worried greatly to take another woman and suggest your husband lay with her. A slave woman, a woman who was "less" than you would be able to provide the heir that you had not been able to provide yourself. The narrative says that you grew resentful towards Hagar, but how long did it take? The night Abram didn't come to your tent? When her pregnancy started to show physically? When did you start to regret your decision? 

Then, you are told by visitors that you will conceive, at 90 years of age. You'll have a baby! The text says you laughed, but I don't think it was a laugh of joy or poking fun at the visitors. I think it was a laugh of remorse. The laughter that is often followed by tears of frustration, anger, sadness. You had tried to solve the problem of having a heir, and here was God finally granting you your boon. I would have thought God was a little late to the party, and why he couldn't have shown up sooner.

You had a lot to deal with. A husband who treated you well, but not always great. A body that would not corporate with desires and wishes. Making plans, doing what you thought was best, but having those plans and decisions blow up in your face. How did you handle it all?

I wish I knew more about you and your side of the story....