In Hebrew, the name Sarah
means “mother of nations.” Sarah was the wife of Abraham. She was ninety years
old when she gave birth to Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah who was barren. Isaac
prayed for his wife to conceive and she did (Gen 25:21). Rebekah,
as promised, gave birth to twin boys: Jacob and Esau.
The mother of Samson was also a barren woman. She
did not pray for a child but was sent a divine messenger to tell her she would
have a son – and that his strength would be dependent on his uncut hair. Later,
Hannah, unable to become pregnant, prayed for a son and God answered her
prayers with Samuel.
Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary, was elderly – long past
menopause – and did not expect to become pregnant. But she did, and gave birth
to John the Baptist. While Elizabeth was still pregnant with John, Mary became
pregnant with Jesus – the most famous miracle birth of all time.
What these stories have in common are that they were
all women who became pregnant with divine intervention.
Sarah and Elizabeth were both very old women. Each of the women gave birth to
sons who grew up to serve critical roles for God and His people.
I believe in miracles. I believe each of these
biblical tales is true. I believe God can do anything.
In the Followers, there were a few women who
believed themselves pregnant and were not. They may or may not have taken home
pregnancy tests. I do not know. I never thought that one of these tests would
be controversial, but perhaps some in the group think the use of these are
against their religion (or maybe ignore the negative results when their
intuition tells them otherwise). In each of the cases, the women were later
found to have been mistaken.
I remember a few people in the group – older folks
who had physical deformities. One elderly woman had a huge
tumor that made her look pregnant with twins. She had borne that tumor for
decades, since she was a woman of childbearing years. Her husband became
frustrated with her for refusing to seek medical intervention and have the
tumor removed. He left the group and divorced her. But she remained in the
group until her death.
Years later, and in recent FOC history, this very
woman’s daughter who was in her seventies, believed herself to be pregnant. The
church midwives examined her and agreed that she was expecting. If you look at
such pregnancies in the context of biblical miracles, it is not such a stretch
to come to the conclusion that this woman was pregnant with a male child who
would have a significant role in this group.
Many folks agreed that this woman was pregnant with
a son who would grow up to become the next FOC leader and preacher. But, there
were skeptics who did not buy the story. The time came when it was clear that
she was not, in fact, pregnant. And this fact caused strife within the group. Those who had believed in the miracle child blamed
the skeptics for their doubt, claiming that their lack of faith had caused God
to withdraw this child.
