Stress Test Devotional May 4
May 04, 2024
1 SAMUEL 1:10-11 | 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. 11 She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”
Samuel was born of a desperate prayer. His mother Hannah was barren in a culture where women’s identity was largely determined via children. Her plea for a child involved a promise: if God “opened her womb” she would give the child back to serve Him. He would grow up assisting the priest Eli, trained in sacrificial obligation, and his sobriety and uncut hair would signal he was “set apart” as a nazirite. God answered her prayer and she kept her promise. After he was weaned, she placed him in the priest’s care in a kind of open adoption, visiting him on annual trips.
This part of Samuel’s story is almost an enactment of baptism. In the baptismal moment, parents hand over their child to the pastor for the administration of the sacrament. This symbolizes the great truth Hannah knew about all children. They belong to God and not to parents! Parents must receive them not as property or personal projects, but as gifts. True parents see themselves as stewards on God’s behalf called to love, nurture, encourage, and disciple.
Do you think our practices of prenatal screening and abortion come from a failure to see children as gifts?
