The End of the Story

      Finally, let’s look at the end of the story of Hannah. (I say finally because I have had internet problems all week and blogger was down for days and I couldn’t post!) God did answer Hannah’s prayer. She thought along that God was say NO! He really was saying NOT NOW. Waiting for God’s timing is always the hardest thing. I remember waiting for a child thinking God was telling me ‘no’ because he was punishing me, when he was saying ‘not now’! It is an excruciating wait.

      However, the next thing Hannah does is mind boggling to me. She remembered her plea with God through her soul spilling prayer: the one where she said she would give him back to God. Now as mother’s we think this can be accomplished through a ceremonial baby dedication and raising them in the knowledge of the LORD. Hannah once again did not serve God in any way but whole heartedly. She took her commitment seriously and she gave her son to the LORD. She breastfed him but when he was weaned (around 3-5 yrs of age) she took him to the temple and put him in the care of the priest who had watched her pray. There he lived his life and Hannah went to see him every year.
      This is sacrifice! We complain when God ask us to give our time, our tithe, our forgiveness, and our possessions to the Lord and yet. Hannah gave her son without complaint but with honor!
     Let’s consider two questions! Is there any commitment you make to the LORD that you have not kept? What kind of heart do you have towards giving sacrificially to the LORD?

“Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.”

1 Sammel 1:27-28