Submission

When I searched for Bible verses about infertility and miscarriage, I got flowery promises that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom. 8:28 NIV), and “you will hold a son in your arms” (2 Kings 4:16 NIV), and “I will...make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky” (Gen. 22:17 NIV). If these verses were meant to comfort me as a hurting woman, they failed miserably because it only made me question more why these promises weren’t true in my own life.

I wanted to take the promise that God gives to Hannah and claim it as my own (1 Sam. 1). But I didn’t want to have to turn around and give my long-awaited child back to God, as Hannah does. I wanted to take the covenant that God makes with Abraham and Sarah and pretend that it was a covenant with me (Gen. 15-21). But I didn’t want to wait until I was ninety years old to finally give birth, as Sarah does. I clung to the happy endings, but I glossed over the years of struggle, pain, confusion, and fruitless faith that these women endured before seeing their promises from God fulfilled.

I eventually had to face the fact that God had given me no such promise. No angel or prophet had announced to me that I would have a child. The truth is that God is writing a unique story for each of us.

While the specific promises may not be the same, the God who makes them is. In each story, we discover a new piece of God’s unchanging character. Instead of using these stories to expect to get our way, we can use them to fall in love with the God we see carefully weaving redemption into every page. Instead of skipping ahead to the endings, we can watch God faithfully comfort, grow, and guide these women in their doubt, confusion, impatience, and frustration.

We get to see behind the scenes how God is putting into motion a good plan in each of their lives, even when they can’t see it. Is it truly possible that God, who wrote these incredible stories, is also writing mine and yours? Believe it, dear friend!

Here is a profound truth: in the end, having a child is not what makes these women’s lives more fulfilling. Restoration is made possible through the process of their faith, of releasing their hopes and dreams to the Lord for Him to do His will with, no matter the end result. Now it’s our turn. Will we also trust God with our lives and our desires?