Moved

It was simply a story about Abraham. It's been heard before, the story is no surprise. Abraham has the good life, God tells him to move to Canaan, he runs into problems all of his own doing, and then is told in his old age he will father a son. And yet somehow when Buechner writes this story with Abraham and Sarah's little suburban home with the two car garage and the color TV, and the appearance of the angel with Sarah's small giggles turning into full blown laughter and Abraham and the angel joining in, the narrative has so much more power. And the blow that got me was the part where God steps in with the expectation that Buechner's God is going to reprimand them for laughing. And it looks like that is what he's going to say. Then the surprise: God is laughing with them, or at least enjoys the fact that they laugh. "It is pretty ridiculous, isn't it," says God, "and yet I promised you that's what I'd do and I'm going to stick to that. And to help you remember, your son's name with be laughter, Isaac, so you will not forget that this is my blessing."

That's when the tears came, but not for anyone in the story. And if that weren't enough, the next two words were, "To weep..."

Perhaps God is an open God and his plan is open for change and free will and his creation loving him is more important to him than having everything set in stone, but I still believe that God has his appointed moments, the scheduled items written on his coffee-stained scheduler. And perhaps his computer alerted him of his scheduled appointment and he stepped away from his desk to sit by my bed while I read that section of Buechner's "Telling the Truth." Or perhaps it was simply a choice he had been hoping I would make and his secretary let him know that his meeting needed to be canceled because I did pick up that book. Whatever is was, God somehow became present in that moment, and it came at the right time.

"Laugh till you weep. Weep till there's nothing left but to laugh at your weeping. In the end it's all one." - Godric