In the middle of this picture is a framed Bible verse: “For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him” (1 Samuel 1:27). It is Hannah, who was unable to conceive, a particularly shameful fate in the ancient Hebrew culture. She prays to God for a child, and tells Him she’ll dedicate this child to Him if God will answer. God answers, and Hannah responds with gratitude, and with the keeping of her promise as well: as soon as her child, Samuel, is weaned, she leaves him at the temple to serve in the ministry.
While our story is different from Hannah’s, our desire was the same as when she prayed. And God has answered. We continue to pray for our child – for her physical growth and cognitive abilities and social development – but most of all that she will be dedicated to God and to His work. This framed verse, like all good Scripture, reminds us of where God has been faithful in the past, and how we must respond with faith in the future.
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