Genesis 21:7 · World English Bible
Genesis 21:7 Meaning She Said
She said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”
What does Genesis 21:7 mean?
A mind astonished by its own healing looks back at the impossibility it once believed and can hardly recognize the fear that ruled it. What was called beyond all reach has become the plainest fact, and the wonder is not that love did it but that the mind ever thought love could not.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
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The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
A mind astonished by its own healing looks back at the impossibility it once believed and can hardly recognize the fear that ruled it. What was called beyond all reach has become the plainest fact, and the wonder is not that love did it but that the mind ever thought love could not. The tending of new life was refused only because the self believed itself unworthy of it.
Strength returns to the part that had written itself off. Nothing was ever wrong with the mind but the low opinion it held of what it could receive.
Sarah: the part of the mind that counted itself too spent to nurture, now tending the very life it swore it could not bear. Abraham: the steady trust to whom the healing is announced, the part that had believed all along. Son: the renewed perception now being fed and cared for, the new life the healed mind sustains.
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Christian Psychology lens
Live Genesis 21:7 today
- Think of one thing you now handle easily that you once believed you never could. Sit with that for a minute, and hold today's "I can't" a little more loosely.
- Say yes to being needed by someone today, a favor, a ride, a long conversation, instead of ducking it because you feel too depleted to be any good to them.
- When you catch yourself saying "I'm not the person for this" at work or at home, try it anyway before you decide. The low opinion is usually older than the evidence.
What am I sure I am not capable of, and when did I last actually test it?
The same truth in other traditions
Zen
After waking, the student can hardly find the problem that filled years. Nothing was ever broken but the opinion held about it.
Stoicism · Epictetus
You have more strength in you than your fears let you count. The limit you felt was a judgment, and judgments can be set down.
Tao Te Ching
What seems empty is where the usefulness lives. The vessel is not poor for being hollow; that is exactly how it can hold anything.
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