Hannah
felt like her heart was breaking. She had been married for quite a
long time, but she still
had no children. Her husband, Elkanah, loved her, but even that
wasn't enough, especially since he had taken another wife in order to
have an heir. Hannah just wanted a
baby of her own, so she did
the only thing she knew to do:
she took her request to God.
But
she did not present her prayer
in any formal, stiff fashion. Instead, she wept and poured her whole
heart out before the Lord, vowing that if He gave her her heart's
desire, a male child, she would give him back to God. She
would dedicate her son to His service for life. That, Hannah
believed, was the greatest gift she could give both the child and
God.
As
Hannah continued to pray, her voice faded away. Her lips moved as
her heart cried to God. Her
whole body became wrapped up in her plea, so much so that to the
priest Eli, she looked as though she'd had too much wine.
When
Eli confronted her, Hannah was quick to explain. “No, my lord,”
she respectfully assured the priest, “I am a woman deeply troubled;
I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring
out my soul before the Lord.”
Hannah
gave her entire self to God in prayer, heart, soul, mind, spirit,
thoughts, words, actions, everything, and
she did so with complete trust that God would hear her and
graciously grant her desire. Indeed He did. God remembered Hannah,
just as she
requested, and nine months later, she gave birth to a little boy,
Samuel.
(1
Samuel 1, NRSV-CE)
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