Waiting is hard, isn’t it? Yesterday we saw how Hannah had to wait long years before God answered her prayers for a child. But in this brief passage, we see how Hannah had to do another kind of waiting – waiting until it was time for her to keep a promise, to perform a service to God.

Now, as we’ll see in our Sunday School lesson, God eventually ended Hannah’s first period of waiting. He answered her prayers and gave her a son, Samuel. But as she was praying and waiting for God’s answer, Hannah had made God a promise – to devote Samuel to the service of the Lord. Keeping this promise would thus mean Hannah would have to send Samuel away to live with the priests so he could learn God’s Word and learn the rituals of God’s worship.

So that meant that as soon as her baby was born, a new time of waiting began for Hannah – waiting for the day when Samuel would be old enough to begin his training, the day when she would have to send him away. Oh, she would still be able to see him on holidays, but every parent and grandparent knows that’s just not the same as being able to see your precious children everyday and hear them laugh and hold them close.

So, this time of waiting had to be hard for Hannah. As she nursed her newborn baby and longed to see him grow bigger and stronger, his development had to have prompted feelings of dread as well as joy. As he progressed from rolling over to crawling, as his teeth began to form, as he began to pull up, testing and building the strength of his legs, every new ability had to make her wonder – will tomorrow be the day when he no longer needs his mother’s milk? Will tomorrow be the day that he walks? If so, will tomorrow be the day that he leaves me?

And whether we know it or not, we all live with the same sort of waiting. We all have the same sort of temporary hold on all of our blessings. For the fact is that God entrusts everyone and everything to us for only a season – and that’s because everyone and everything really belongs to Him, not to us.

And so teachers must let their students graduate and go off to practice the skills they’ve learned. Parents must let their children discover their own gifts and let them go to start their own families and careers. And eventually, either through our death or our beloved’s, all those relationships that are most important to us will come to an end, at least in this world.

But while we acknowledge that all our blessings are fleeting, we can take comfort in what Elkanah says in verse 23 – just as God kept His promise to give Hannah a son, we can be sure God will keep His word to welcome all those who trust in Christ and give them everlasting life. And that certainty can help us hold all our worldly blessings lightly, as we trust everyone and everything to the sovereign grace of our faithful God.

I Samuel 1:21-23 (ESV)

21 The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.
22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the LORD and dwell there forever.”
23 Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him; only, may the LORD establish his word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.