Sarah Laughed

We read in Genesis 18:9-15 

9 Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he said

10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

Sarah Laughed

Sarah laughed when she heard the angel say. 

It won't be long and you will have a baby.

Sure enough she gave birth to a son. 

Sarah learned what it means to overcome.

I can imagine those around her laughing too. 

They must have thought her silly, none of it was true. 

But I am astonished when I think about how she laughed back then. 

A woman such as her questioning God's 

Sovereignty again and again. 

We think of Sarah as resilient and strong. 

But she too struggled with her own doubts all along. 

You see the mark of an overcomer is not someone perfectly righteous

Nor is it that person who feeds the poor and can be pious. 

No, the overcomer is the one who is aware of their sin. 

And clings to their Savior for grace from what has been. 

Sarah laughed but is proclaimed as our mother above who is free. 

She stands for the new covenant and the law of liberty. 

Though she laughed and may have struggled with fear. 

She overcame and understood as the time to give birth came near 

And so with us too, we may wonder why me. 

And question the promises He spoke setting us free.

And as we fail again and again we cannot understand. 

That God is the one to lift us up by His mighty hand. 

Just like Sarah we may laugh when God tells us to write a book. 

Or run for an office or go to school and we may take a second look. 

Meanwhile God is patiently waiting while we second guess His plan.

Because we forget it is not in our strength but in His that we stand. 

But in the end, we soon realize how futile we were to doubt. 

Just as Sarah was soon to find out. 

But Sarah represents us all as overcomers. 

And we are in good company with her and so many others. 

Yes Sarah laughed and sometimes we do too. 

But God will soon fulfill His plan as only He can do. 

© Sandra C. Johnson 2025

26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written:

“Be glad, barren woman,

    you who never bore a child;

shout for joy and cry aloud,

    you who were never in labor;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

    than of her who has a husband.”[e]

28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”[f] 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Galatians 4:28-31

This poem was adapted into a song and can be viewed on my YouTube channel here: