Interesting.

Well, I still haven't bought my MacJournal, so this blog is being written old-skool! =). ((But not as far back as to waste innocent trees and cramp up my hand...))

In addition to my summer reading I have decided to trek my way through 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings. I started yesterday morning over breakfast, feeling slightly confused and cynical with myself about why I had chosen these particular books. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the stories and yes, I've been told they're more than just non-fiction stories-they have relevance to every day life. Uh huh. Well, let's see what we find then, aye?

To my surprise, I actually found something I thought was pretty profound! In the first chapter!

So, if you don't know, the first chapter of 'The First Book of Samuel' ((that's what my Bible calls it)) is about Elkanah and his two wives, Hannah and Peninnah ((are you seeing the same trend I'm seeinnah..)). Peninnah has tons of children; Hannah's womb has been closed. Peninnah chooses to be a [insert nasty word here] to Hannah because of her lack of children. That's the sitch.

So every year they travel as a family to the city to sacrifice animals and worship G-d ((they lived in the country)) and Hannah would get really depressed and wouldn't eat because this is when Peninnah would "provoke her bitterly to irritate her,"-1:6. Of course her hubby gets concerned and asks "Am I not better to you than ten sons?"-1:8. And at this point I'm thinking her husband is silly, not only for choosing to have two wives who obviously can't get along, but he asks silly questions too!

Anyways, we're getting to the profound bit...Hannah goes to the temple of the Lord to weep and pray because she wants a son so badly. Eli the priest comes and thinks she drunk, but she says she was just praying ((hmmm, why is it that everyone thinks Spirit-filled people are drunk? See Acts 2:13)). He apologizes and blesses her saying, "Go in peace; and may the G-d of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him." Then she goes and sleeps with her husband and nine months later has a baby whom she calls Samuel.

Okay, so after all that background, here's the cool bit. After Samuel has been weaned she takes him to the temple and gives him to the priest so he can grow up in the temple, worshiping G-d, just like she promised. And then in chapter 2 she has this amazing song of thanksgiving that has no bitterness or self pity in it. This is what struck me, she had a different agenda than what is obvious. If I was in her position, I would have gone and prayed for a child too, I may have even taken him to the temple for a little while, but all that would have been to prove my strength. 'I was a barren woman and now I have a child that I can rub in Peninnah's face because she was wrong about me.' or 'I prayed and G-d listened to me and gave me what I wanted so I could be restored in my family.'

However, Hannah caught on to something better than that. She wasn't trying to prove her strength, she was proving G-d's. That's the only conclusion I can come to when I see how she not only went to Him first, but offered her son, what she wanted most, her passion, her restoration, her everything to G-d. And then rejoiced about it. She rejoiced about the hardest thing a mother would ever have to do, because G-d got the glory. Interesting.