Nowadays there seem to be so many women who greatly desire to become pregnant, but continue to deal with infertility. I personally have struggled in the opposite direction (getting pregnant to easily), so I can't imagine the pain of not receiving the blessing of children. Since childbearing is one of the main ways He has designed us to bear His image, it is a legitimate good desire to want children. Unfortunately, so many women don't want the burden of children. They would rather make themselves great through careers and education and beauty and vacations and so on. Although Hannah was dealing with the temptation to make motherhood an idol, she wanted God sees as a blessing - children.
She was desperate...She prayed to the Lord, pleading for Him to give her a child, looking as if she were drunk. Oh, how she wanted a child, but in that prayer, she made a vow. "I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life" (1 Samuel 1:11). This doesn't make sense to us. Why would she ask for a child and turn around and promise to give the child up? Maybe she realized that the child would not be hers anyway. Everything we have is from the hand of the Lord, and everything He gives is for His glory. He is the one who gives and the one who takes away.
Eli, the priest, saw Hannah's desperation and promised that the Lord would grant her petition; he had seen her faith. But, the Bible says "in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son." The idea of "in due time" seems to imply that she had to continue to wait on the Lord in faith. Like Sarah who was promised a child and who decided to work out God's plan by her own means, she may have had moments of doubt and debilitating pain, but praise the Lord, though our faith may waver, His faithfulness does not. The Lord gave her a son. Hannah did as she had vowed, and when her son Samuel was weaned, she took him to serve at the house of the Lord.
This story personally convicts me because I too often seem my children as mine - not the Lord's. It not even so much that I worry they may be taken from me, but I see them as made for my glory instead of the Lord's. I want them to do what pleases me. I want them to make me look good. I don't want to be bothered with their foolishness. I worry more about how they have sinned against me than how they may have sinned against their heavenly Father. I forget to see them as made in the image of God. I forget his continual patience and steadfast love toward us. I forget my role as a steward of what I have been given, of shepherding my children for the kingdom of God.
This summer I heard a lady speak about daily praying to be able to give her children back to the Lord. I want this to be my prayer each day as I deal with the bickering of brothers and sisters, fits over uncomfortable clothing, and reading lessons gone awry. I don't want my life with my children to be about what I can get out of them, but about how I can point them to Christ at the cross. I must be willing to give them up as He gave us his life on the cross...give them up so His name may be great and not my own. I want to be able to give my children back to Lord as Hannah did.
The story of Hannah has so many great truths, so please don't let my simplified explanation and specific personal application mislead you from what can be gleaned from this particular passage of Scripture. Instead, delve into it, and discover our great God and His ongoing provision and providence.
