Max Lucado writes about Abram and Sarai: [Experiencing the Heart of Jesus, pp.110]
"Let's now consider the case of Sarai. She's in her golden years, but God promises her a son. She gets excited. She visits the maternity shop and buys a few dresses. She plans her shower and remodels her tent...but no son. She eats a few birthday cakes and blows out a lot of candles...still no son. She goes through a decade of wall calendars...still no son.
Finally, fourteen years later, when Abram is pushing a century of years and Sarai ninety...when the wallpaper in the nursery has faded and the baby furniture is several seasons out of date...when the topic of the promised child brings sighs and tears and long looks into a silent sky...God pays them a visit and tells them that they had better select a name for their new son.
Abram and Sarai have the same response: laughter. They laugh partly because it is too good to happen and partly because it might. They laugh because they have given up hope, and hope born anew is always funny before it is real.
They laugh at the lunacy of it all.
Abram looks over at Sarai - toothless and snoring in her rocker, head back and mouth wide open, as fruitful as a pitted prune and just as wrinkled. And he cracks up. He tries to contain it, but he can't. He has always been a sucker for a good joke.
Sarai is just as amused. When she hears the news, a cackle escapes before she can contain it. She mumbles something about her husband's needing a lot more than what he's got and then laughs again.
They laugh because that is what you do when someone says he can do the impossible. They laugh a little at God, and a lot with God - for God is laughing, too. Then, with the smile still on his face, he gets busy doing what he does best - the unbelievable.
He changes a few things - beginning with their names. Abram, the father of one, will now be Abraham, the father of a multitude. Sarai, the barren one, will now be Sarah, the mother."
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