I don’t know how to crochet and I don’t think I want to try to learn at this point. However, I truly appreciate the beauty and talent represented in crocheted items. Both my mom and mother-in-law crocheted afghans for us in the early 1980s and I still cherish them. I can only make potholders with those stretchy-nylon weaving loops and they‘re too little to keep me warm.
In Old Testament times, it was a disgrace for a wife to be childless. Hannah had been incapable of conceiving a child for several years. Her husband Elkana tried to comfort her with these words, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” (1 Samuel 1:8 ESV). She was too sweet and gracious to answer aloud, but she probably thought, “Nope.”
Because she was barren, Hannah was in the temple of the Lord at Shiloh weeping bitterly, deeply distressed, and praying for a baby boy. Her prayer was so fervent that Eli the priest wrongly assumed that she was drunk. She woefully explained that she was troubled in spirit and simply pouring out her soul to the Lord. Eli then responded, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to Him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad” (1 Samuel 1:17,18 ESV).
Hannah received peace and believed that her prayer would be answered. We might say she left the temple with a photo of her baby in the picture frame of her heart. She entered the temple in an inconceivable physical condition, but she left conceiving (in her mind) a baby of her own. In reality, Hannah entered and exited the temple in the same physical condition, but her heart had made a radical turnaround. She traded her sad face for a happy face, and exchanged anxiety for peace. Hannah quit acting like she’d lost her last best friend and started crocheting a blue baby afghan. In due time, she conceived and delivered a baby boy with joy.
Hannah is a sterling example of an individual shaking off the mulligrubs. Her emotional pain drove her to seek help from Jehovah-Jireh (the God who provides). Mothers must remember it’s not our responsibility to worry and fret, or try to play God by taking into our own hands situations that should be left to Him alone. But it is our responsibility to cast our care upon Jesus, trust Him, and pray without worry. Hannah received into her heart what Eli said, and believers need to receive what God says through His Word. There are thousands of promises in the Bible, and if we’ll truly believe them, we can live joyfully as a child of the King.
Hannah illustrates the nature of faith as taught in the New Testament. She was utterly convinced that God answered her prayer as she left the temple. Jesus said, “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours” (Mark 11:24 NLT). Hannah was no longer sad, even though there was no hard evidence that her petition was granted. “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1 NLT).
The Key: Mothers who pray in faith are teaching their children to trust God.