The Lord has made me strong.
Now I have an answer for my enemies;
I rejoice because you rescued me.
No one is holy like the Lord!
There is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
Stop acting so proud and haughty!
Don’t speak with such arrogance!
For the Lord is a God who knows what you have done;
he will judge your actions.
The bow of the mighty is now broken,
and those who stumbled are now strong.
Those who were well fed are now starving,
and those who were starving are now full.
The childless woman now has seven children,
and the woman with many children wastes away.
The Lord gives both death and life;
he brings some down to the grave but raises others up.
The Lord makes some poor and others rich;
he brings some down and lifts others up.
He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes,
placing them in seats of honor.
For all the earth is the Lord’s,
and he has set the world in order.
He will protect his faithful ones,
but the wicked will disappear in darkness.
No one will succeed by strength alone.
Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered.
He thunders against them from heaven;
the Lord judges throughout the earth.
He gives power to his king;
he increases the strength of his anointed one." 1 Samuel 2:1-10
This is Hannah's prayer to the Lord after He blessed her with Samuel. She had suffered for years from the despair of not being able to have children for Elkanah. Added suffering and shame came from Penninah, Elkanah's other wife who had no problem bearing children. A woman who wants little more than to provide children for her husband and cannot is broken. Satan likes to take that brokenness and despair and try to apply it to all areas of her life. Relationships suffered between Penninah and Hannah. I am certain that relationships between Penninah's and Elkanah's children and Hannah suffered. I am confident that the relationship between Hannah and Elkanah suffered. Their home-lives must have been a mess!
God heard and answered Hannah's prayers. Hannah discovered that the greatest joy in having a child was to be able to completely and freely give that child back to God. When our relationships seem too hard, beyond salvage, we MUST remember that God displays creativity not only by making things from scratch - but also by bringing order and beauty out of messes.
When we were going through the mourning of our last miscarriage, I discovered a song that really spoke to me. It allowed me to be open with the fact that I was in pain, I didn't have the answers, I was at my lowest point - but it also provided comfort for me in knowing that my Father loved me, He knew and shared in my pain, He has all the answers, and He sat with me, holding me, comforting me, ministering to me in a way that no one else could. Above all I learned that God would take that pain and turn it into something beautiful.
I still don't always see the whole "Big" beautiful picture... but what I do see is this: a marriage that can withstand anything because we make our stand with God; a woman who has re-dedicated herself to chasing after God; a couple who managed to move to Ohio and purchase a home, a husband who managed to beat out many, more experienced, people for a phenomenal job - in the midst of the worst economy we've seen during our lifetime; and an opportunity we are being pushed towards to have our family through adoption. Beauty from pain indeed! Praise be to God!
