biblical promises

Is Anything Too Wonderful for God?

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Genesis 18:1–15

Every once in a while, a passage of Scripture meets us right where our hopes have given up. Genesis 18:1-15 is one of those passages. Abraham and Sarah have lived for decades with a promise from God. A promise not just of a child, but of a whole covenant future: a people, a land, and blessing for the world. But without a son, none of it can move forward. This isn’t a generic story about infertility; it’s about whether God will keep the very promise on which his redemptive plan rests.

The scene breaks into the ordinary. Abraham is resting in the heat of the day when three mysterious visitors appear. Genesis tells us that “the LORD appeared,” yet Abraham sees three men. However we understand these visitors, the point is clear: God has drawn near. And Abraham responds like a man who has been shaped by years of God’s gracious invitations. He runs, he bows, he prepares a feast far beyond what he offers in words. His hospitality mirrors the hospitality God has shown him.

But the heart of the story lies inside the tent, where Sarah listens as one of the visitors says, “About this time next year… Sarah shall have a son.” She laughs! Not the laugh of mockery, but the protective laugh of someone who has been disappointed before. She knows her age. She knows the long ache of waiting. And she knows how painful it is to hope again.

Many of us know that laugh. We hear promises of forgiveness, renewal, or resurrection, and something in us whispers, “Don’t get your hopes up.” Sometimes skepticism is just a shield.

Then comes the question that echoes down through the generations: “Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?” It’s not a rebuke. It’s a wake‑up call. The God who formed galaxies, who judged the world in Noah’s day, who scattered human pride at Babel, this God is not limited by our timelines or our tired expectations. And in the fullness of time, he would go even further than Sarah’s miracle, bringing life into the world through a virgin’s womb.

At the end of the passage, God insists that Sarah remember her laughter. Not to shame her. But so that when the promised child arrives, she will see just how far God has gone to keep his word.

Open a Bible and read Genesis 18:1–15 for yourself. Let that question linger: “Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?”

It’s easy to try to outrun God

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Genesis 16

This piece begins a four‑part series exploring the story of Genesis 16 and what it reveals about God and the human heart.

God makes sweeping promises in Scripture: promises to prosper his people, to give them hope and a future, and more. But these promises begin small, like a seed. In Genesis, these promises begin with two people: Abram and Sarai. Everything God intends to do, make them a great nation, giving them a new land, and bless them richly, depends on one thing Abram and Sarai don’t have: a son. You may be surprised to know that all these promises are carried over into the New Testament, but not as a seed any longer but a mighty tree.

The lack of a son to Abram and Saria help explain their actions in Genesis 16. And it’s a problem that’s theological, psychological, and social all at once.

Theologically, God promised a great nation through Abram’s offspring. No son means no nation. Psychologically, Abram and Sarai longed for a child. Many today know that ache. Socially, Sarai lived in a world where a woman’s worth was tied to her ability to “build up” a family (Genesis 16:2). That pressure crushed her. It whispered that she was less-than, broken, inferior.

We may not live in her world, but we know that whisper. Every culture has its own way of telling us we’re not enough. One culture says, “You’re nothing without children.” Another says, “You’re nothing without a career.” Both fuel feelings of inferiority.

So Sarai, feeling worthless, looks for a shortcut. She turns to Hagar, her Egyptian servant, and proposes a solution that was perfectly acceptable in Canaanite culture, but not in God’s design for human flourishing. She offers her servant to Abram as a wife. Abram, instead of praying or waiting, simply “listened to the voice of Sarai” (Genesis 16:2). That’s Genesis-language for listening to a voice that, at least at that moment spoke contrary to God, rather than listening to the voice of God.

It’s easy to judge them, but we do the same. We rush ahead when God tells us to wait. We bend rules when we want something badly enough. We try to outrun God, and in doing so, we cut him out.

Genesis 16 invites us to see ourselves in Abram and Sarai. Their problem is our problem: Will we trust God to make good on his promises, or will we try to force them? Will we let God be God, or will we take matters into our own hands?

If you’ve never read this story, open a Bible this week and sit with Genesis 16:1–3. You may find your own reflection staring back. Next article we’ll evaluate the outcome of Sarai and Abram’s plan.