1 Samuel 1:27 “For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me my petition which I made to him” (RSV).

“For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me my petition which I made to him” (RSV).

Comment:

Hannah is one of a number of biblical women (Sarah, Elizabeth, Rachel, Rebekah, etc.) whose inability to bear children is 'healed' by divine intervention. In Hannah's case, she has promised the Lord in prayer that if she is allowed to bear a son, she will “give him to the Lord all the days of his life” (1 Sam. 1:11 RSV). When her prayer is fulfilled, she does, indeed, bring her son Samuel to Eli, the priest in Shiloh, and leaves him to serve the priest with this expression of gratitude.

The metaphysical lesson is important and, sometimes, difficult. It tells us that the good we receive from our Oneness with the divine does not belong to us; it belongs always to God. Hannah gives birth to the son she wanted, but she does not get to keep him at home. Her joy comes in knowing that her son is serving God, and in watching him “grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men” (1 Sam. 2:26 RSV). We, too, will find our greatest joy in appreciating the positive energy our prayer commitments create in the world.