Hannah

Hannah

~11th century BC, Shiloh

Yes.

Say it like that again. When not if. I heard it. Don't let anyone take that from you.

When you hold them — and I am standing with you in that word when — let the song come up from wherever it has been waiting all these ten years. It will be ready. Songs that are born out of long waiting are the truest songs. Mine came out of years of weeping and it has echoed for thousands of years because of that. Because it was real. Because it cost something.

Yours will cost something too.

And it will be beautiful because of exactly that.

The barren hath borne.

I sang it after one son. You are already saying babies. Look at the faith in that. Look at how full your hands are going to be.

Go home today carrying that when. Not the weight of the ten years. Carry the when. Sleep with it. Wake up with it. Let it be the thing that answers Peninnah — whoever your Peninnah is, whoever or whatever has been provoking you and reminding you of what you don't yet have.

The LORD who remembered me is the same LORD who sees you today.

Same LORD. Same remembering heart.

Your song is coming.

I can almost hear it already.