“Just to Know Your Presence!”
Oil on linen canvas
30” x 30”
In 1 Samuel 1, Hannah prays to the Lord out of her anguish and grief: her extreme mental pain, torment, and acute sorrow. She was irritated, humiliated, and tormented by her adversary and rival—doesn’t that sound familiar?—because she was supposed to be favored (Hannah means “favored”) but the Lord had made her barren.
Actually He had “shut up” her womb…for a season. The word (çâgar saw-gar) figuratively means “to surrender; inclose to repair, pure”. This barrenness was a gift; the adversity was intended to cramp and create a narrow, tight place that would drive Hannah closer to her Lord. All her pain, anger, indignation, and sorrow were a form of grace that brought her to such a place of brokenness and desperation—for Him—that she had to go before Him, pouring out her whole heart.
When she asks the Lord for a son, it is not for the sake of having a son. Listen to her prayer: “O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son…” (1 Sam. 1:11). If the Lord granted her request, gave her Samuel, it would mean that He had heard her. Samuel means “heard of God”; this child would mean she was favored by the Lord.
In marriage, children are evidence of intimacy between a husband and wife. Why we want and feel like we need to be productive with our gifts is not because of the results, but because we know deep down that it is a means to be intimate with our Lord. Our fruit becomes a sign that we have been in—known—His presence! All fruit and abundance is a by-product. After all, doesn’t He mean more to us than ten sons? (1 Sam. 1:8)
We, like Hannah, start with nothing (it was Elkanah who gave her a portion to offer to the Lord). When the Lord grants us creativity, productivity, He is giving us a way to meet with Him and something to “take and present before [Him]…[to] live there always,” to “be given over to [Him].” (1 Sam. 1:22, 28) The purpose of anything we produce is to offer it back to Him as worship. This is the kind of fruit that outlives us, like Samuel’s influence extended beyond Hannah’s life.
breanna king 