“So, do you have children?”, another stranger asks, quite nonchalantly. “No, we don’t”, I answer, anticipating an additional question or two. The situation has become one I’m rather used to, as seven years of marriage is plenty of time to have a much larger family than our family of two. My mind races with thoughts of how to quickly change the topic, because I know that lingering on the subject may pave the way for awkward silence and more detailed probing.

Although they’re normal questions for the Central Asian (and other) cultures in which my husband and I lived, they still sometimes caught me off guard. Our family had long since accepted the fact that God’s timing may not be what we thought it would, and we had true peace in God’s plan for our future. Yet that didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be awkward situations that seemed to remind us of just how different we were than most families in our age group.

As I read through the first chapters of the first book of Samuel, I can partly imagine Hannah’s pain. Living in a culture where women were defined by the number of children they bore, Hannah’s days were full of grief and sorrow. We read that, “She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.” 1 Samuel 1:10

Days turned to weeks to months to years, and she remained childless. Her rival Penninah added to her grief as she selfishly teased and provoked her. All in all, it just seemed that Hannah’s tearful, continued prayers would never be answered.

But she didn’t stop. Although years went by before anything changed, she continued hoping, praying, and believing that something would. Her faith lived through the darkest days because she knew Who she was praying to. She put her faith in the one, true, sovereign God; and He heard her prayers and answered in His time.

So as I rejoice with Hannah; I’m also challenged. Do I continue praying with faith, hoping that my desires are also the Lord’s? Do I continue seeing His goodness, even when I’m left with more questions than answers? And in my troubled situations, do I leave renewed after meeting and talking with Him?