One Long Adagio with Antenna Up

I imagine Abraham and the three men/the Lord picnicking at a distance. Maybe their vantage point is the opening image of this video, of the tree, far away. I imagine the Lord asking, “Where is your wife Sarah?” and Abraham saying, “There, in the tree.”

I am curious about the way in which the Lord announces the promise of a son to Abraham, and not to Sarah. Rather than getting the news directly, she overhears it as she’s listening outside. God even asks Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh?” And only addresses Sarah when she denies her laughter, saying, “Yes, you did laugh.”

For a long time I read into this passage a lack of intimacy, a kind of chiding, from the Lord to Sarah, but as I’ve paddled in the pool of this scripture I’ve come to imagine the Lord engaging in a romance with Sarah from a distance—an exchange of knowing looks from across the room. He doesn’t really need to ask anyone why Sarah laughed. He full well knows. He’s been anticipating her response to this absurdly unexpected news. In my interpretation, Sarah, in her moment of surprise and incredulity says, “What? After I am worn out from miles and miles and miles and years and years and years of dancing this adagio in the hot sun will I now have the pleasure of this mist on my face?” Furthermore, as it turns out, the Liszt composition I chose for the sound is entitled “Consolation.” I am certain Sarah needed much consoling along the road to ninety.

My first name is Sarah, after this Sarah. Wildly enough, while working on this piece, I have received absurdly unexpected news that a door in my life that I thought was closed forever has been re-opened. Coincidence? Fulfillment of a promise that I’ve been moving toward while so often thinking it had disappeared, mirage-like, in the sweltering Heat of Life?

Throughout Sarah’s long slow dance, the Lord so patiently awaits her arrival, and she so patiently moves towards Him with great longsuffering. He prompts her to laugh, and as she laughs, He joins her! –Sharing an undeniable joy from which new life is born.