Abracadabra!

I recently went to Max Major's magic show, and he did a particular trick that got to me. Max told us it was a trick BEFORE he did it (which may be part of the trickery). So he took a newspaper and said: "I'm going to take this newspaper, and it's going to seem like I'm tearing it up, but when I drop the pieces to the ground, it will become apparent that I never tore it all." I'm thinking that he's ruining it, but then he commences to folding the newspaper and he starts tearing along the creases he made. I can seriously HEAR the ripping sounds. Then he makes a lazier fold and starts making jagged tears. I can SEE the edges of torn up paper (or so I think)...and he goes on folding, ripping, sounds continue to be made. At one point he tears across diagonally right through a photo, and I'm like THE PAPER IS TORN! But when he goes to drop the paper pieces...it's a a whole newspaper again.

I was astounded, and kept saying dumb things like: "How did he do that?! He tricked  me!" Beyond  that I paid good money to, in fact, be tricked, that statement was dumb because he did not trick me. He TOLD me flat out what was going to do. He was the creator of the trick; he was the person actually in control of the newspaper...yet I believed my eyes and ears over what he told me.

 Which leads me back to Hebrews 11 - Faith Hall of Fame continues.
  
I was all set to write about Abraham, but then I was tripped up by this: 

By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. 

 - Hebrews 11:11

My first thought was: What is she doing in here? If there's one thing we know...it is this: Sarah laughed. God TOLD Sarah that she would give birth to a son, and we know that Sarah didn't believe! She was super old and she trusted her senses over what the God of the universe told her. So what is she doing in the Hal of Fame?!  I'll come back to that.

I try to get inside what Sarah went through. When she first found out that she was going to have this amazing son, this seed of a nation...she had to have been so hype! She had to think: "and day now." Then a few years pass, no big deal. God does everything in HIS time. He's an on-time God. Then, a few more years pass and she starts worrying about her "last egg" but it's cool. God can preserve. And then...menopause. For Sarah, menopause had to have been like watching the paper get torn diagonally. You see now, that the gig is up! For you to present me with a whole newspaper at this point would be a miracle! We're often afraid to believe that God is in the business of miracles. Hope on that level is scary. Ellis Boyd said it best: 

"Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane." 

After so many years, I think Sarah chose sanity. I don't even think she realized that her faith was broken, until God called her out on it. 

Then one of them [of the three angel messengers] said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening...Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

This returns me to: what is Sarah doing in here?! But, don't you see God re-ordering Sarah's thinking? This entire exchange was for Sarah. The messengers made sure that Sarah was nearby where she could hear before they spoke (Genesis 18:9), and they addressed her unbelief in order to eradicate it.

Is there anything too hard for the Lord? 

That is what Sarah needed to hear! She needed to be reminded of who was in control of her situation. God confronted Sarah with her doubt so that she could leave it in that tent. And Hebrews 11:11 tells me she did just that. She found faith again. Not in her body. Not in her "last egg".  Scripture says she considered God faithful. She didn't know how it was going to happen, but I believe that from that moment in the tent...her doubt was gone. And her faith put her in the hall of fame. Blessed.

Note: A part of me still believes he tore up that paper and somehow replaced it with an identical untorn paper...I have no idea what happened. For me it was incomprehensible. All I know is at the end he did what he told me he would do: he produced a newspaper in perfect condition.

Trust the magician. Be amazed.