You can always learn something new by reading God's word.  I discovered something about myself as I have been reading, and writing, about the women of the Bible--that I had never thought about the stories from a woman's point of view.  The women had always been presented to me as minor characters in events that happened to men.  However, looking at the stories from a woman's point of view has been a revelation.  They were real.  They lived through the same events, but were practically unnoticed.  Putting myself in their shoes has given me a new perspective.

How did Sarah feel when Abraham was frightened and passed her off as his sister?  How did she feel when Abraham didn't save her from being taken into another man's harem?  How did she feel when Abraham took his entire family with him to their new land, but she had to leave all of her family behind?  How did it feel to be a woman in a culture that gave her no voice?  We can't be sure, but women must have felt invisible.  Second-class.  They must have felt like they were just property.

But when Sarah had a child, Isaac, her world changed.  She was elevated to a place of prominence.    Isaac was a promised child.  God had promised to make a great nation of him.  Her son.  Her joy must have been palpable.  I can just picture her nursing him, watching him grow, loving him with all her heart.  But then, when he was a young boy, Abraham was willing to sacrifice him.  True, at the last second, God provided a ram instead.  But surely Sarah was never again able to let Isaac go somewhere with Abraham that she didn't feel dread, fear, or deep concern.  I would have.

She lived a life that was emotionally difficult.  But Abraham was very wealthy, so she had it better than most women of her day.  She lived to be 127 years old, and saw her son Isaac live to be 37 years old before she died.  We hear much about the relationship of Isaac and Abraham, and nothing about the relationship of Isaac and Sarah.  But you can only imaging how proud she was of him.  He became a great man in his own right--the father of Jacob and Esau.  And Jacob was the father of the 12 tribes of Israel.

We look at linage through the men.  We look at love through the women.