99 Stories of God

66. Rebirth

Three strange beings called angels visit Abraham to tell him and his wife, Sarah, that they will have a child. They are both ninety years old.

Sarah laughs at the angels and then denies that she did and is not quite forgiven.

Nay, but thou didst laugh, one of the angels says to her.

Why was Sarah given the opportunity for understanding, for evolution and transformation, the chance to kick herself up to the next level, when she was so dim-witted? She thought they meant an actual child, a baby!

They did not mean an actual child, a baby.

Still, anyway, if you take it literally, as you might, as well as morally, allegorically and mystically, why did God want to exact that dreadful sacrifice once the child was born?

It was Abraham’s idea to make the poor, unsuspecting kid, Isaac — whose name may or may not mean laughter actually — carry wood, the very wood that would incinerate him, up to the altar. That was Abraham’s rather unnecessary contribution to the story, not God’s.

Finally, God stepped in and said, No, you don’t have to do it, and just in time.