Remembering Sarah

Isaiah 51:1-8 is, among other things, a glorious announcement of God’s future salvation. It doesn’t get much better than the words of verse three: “For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.” (NRSV)

In a bold reminder to remember where they have come from, which is how the chapter begins, Isaiah includes the only reference to Sarah outside the Genesis narrative. In the NRSV verse two begins like this, “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you.” The NASB translates the verse “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain.”

Obviously there would have been no Isaac without Sarah! If the rest of the Abraham narrative is taken to heart, it seems to me that the real miracle of Isaac’s birth was performed on Sarah, not Abraham. After all, he was able to have children with other women. But Sarah seems to have been lost in the story in terms of memory. Abraham’s name is mentioned 41 times in the Hebrew Bible outside of the Genesis narrative; Sarah’s once!

I would love to be able to ask Isaiah what caused him to mention Sarah this one time. Not to suggest that the Bible has some sort of unfortunate sexist agenda, nor that I have failed to understand the patriarchal nature of the culture in which the Hebrew Bible was written. Counting the number of times a word/name appears does not necessarily speak to the value of Abraham over Sarah.

But, with Mother’s Day approaching this weekend, I am drawn to that Isaiah phrase, “look to Sarah who bore you.” Or, in the more literal language of the NASB, “who gave birth to you in pain.” For those of us blessed with godly and loving mothers, it is pretty good advice to be reminded of the importance of our mothers. Having been blessed with both a godly father and mother – were my father still living, he would be concerned about me if I didn’t “remember my mother who gave birth to me in pain.”

That makes me think about stories I’ve heard about my birth. My mother is barely five feet tall and probably weighed 100 pounds when my life began. When I was born, I weighed ten pounds and 13 ounces. Apparently, Caesarean births weren’t all that available in the little county hospital in which I was born, and I came into this world with a broken right arm. I don’t remember a thing about that day just over 60 years ago, but I’m guessing my mother does. Had she not been the godly mother she was, I think I would still owe her some respect!

Having watched my own wife be a godly mother to my two daughters, I’ve often thought about the incredibly difficult task of being a mother. I’ve thought about the spiritual formation that goes on, so very often, on the lap of godly mothers. I’ve thought a lot about the protection and care, the efforts to keep Dad under control, and the whole list of “stuff” that comes with motherhood.

“Look to Sarah who bore you” is right there in Isaiah. Whatever Isaiah’s intent for Israel to think when they read those words, they will forever remind me not to forget that were it not for my own mother, I wouldn’t be here and wouldn’t be the person I am! And were it not for my wife, the mother of my two daughters, they wouldn’t be here and wouldn’t be the fine young women they are.

The word for today: don’t forget your mother! Or the mother of your children!