Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.
- Genesis 11:30
Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
- Genesis 25:21
When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.
- Genesis 29:31
A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth.
- Judges 13:2
He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannahhad none.
- 1 Samuel 1:2
“What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”
Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”
“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”
But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
- 2 Kings 4:14-17
But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
- Luke 1:7
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, you his servants;
praise the name of the Lord.
Let the name of the Lord be praised,
both now and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the Lord is to be praised.
The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes,
with the princes of his people.
He settles the childless woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.
Praise the Lord.
- Psalm 113:1-9
“Sing, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.
“Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations
and settle in their desolate cities.
“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth
and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
For your Maker is your husband—
the Lord Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
he is called the God of all the earth.
The Lord will call you back
as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
a wife who married young,
only to be rejected,” says your God.
“For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
In a surge of anger
I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
I will have compassion on you,”
says the Lord your Redeemer.
- Isaiah 54:1-8
Boilerplate
I’m Harold Dykstra. I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story. My time is well spent. A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel. I did not know she was an angel at the time. The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone. And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy. She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others. She changed my life.
In her leaving, she said someone would come. I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived. While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.
This Week’s Question
Last week Babs fell, and I wasn’t there to pick her up. We worked out a plan for communication so that both she and I could send a signal easily. Really, a friend of ours that we met not long ago said she had a friend of a friend who had invented a tiny walkie talkie, push a button and talk, not much range, but at least a range as big as the house. We hung them from a chain around our neck. We would be beta testers. Funny thing about it is that the little button has “Design by Tensie” on the back. Babs commented at the time that she always wanted a man who would give her jewelry and here she gets a necklace to hold an emergency call button.
This week, Babs had been babysitting Willie’s children all day. My device never chirped. I heard no children screaming. I heard no adult screaming. Willie came to pick up the children and there were pleasant words said in both directions. So, I guess it went satisfactorily.
But after supper that night, Babs began to cry.
“Babs, what’s wrong?”
Babs sniffled, “Everything went well with the children today. If Willie knew my past, she would probably not have trusted me. But I had a conversation with Jayke, her little boy. He didn’t know what to call me. His parents had taught him to not call ‘old people’ by their given names. ‘Ms. Bounty’ seemed to not be very good, since I was almost family. But he would not call me Oma or Beppe. His Beppe had died. I might be living in Beppe’s house. But I was not Beppe. I guess Beppe is what he called your wife?”
I nodded, “We took the Frisian names for grandparents: pake and beppe. We thought about the Dutch and German names of Opa and Oma. Sometimes the kids switched back and forth. I think they were trying to throw us off. What did you come up with?”
Babs shrugged, as the tears flowed anew, “We didn’t. I wasn’t a Grannie. I would have to have had children to be a Mommie, and I never had children. All my life, I did the activity that produces babies, but I took every precaution to not have any. And suddenly, all I want now is to go back in time and have a house full of them.”
I slid my dining room chair next to hers and gave her a hug. After we embraced for a while, it seemed her crying had lessened.
Babs asked, “I looked up barren women in the Bible. Sarah was barren. Rebekah was barren. Rachel was barren. There was a wife of Manoah. Do you know her name?”
I pulled away to look into her eyes, “The mother of Samson? No, the Bible never says. And before you ask, the Shunammite woman who Elisha prophesied would give birth to a son, then the son died, then Elisha raised the boy from the dead. No one knows her name either.”
Babs nodded, “I didn’t mention Hannah or Elizabeth, but even those two without names all had a boy. I may not be too physically old to bear children, but there are greater risks now that I am in the declining years of my life. God can forgive you of your sins, but He never runs the clock backward. Yes, Sarah was old, older than me, but not having children will always be a reminder of my lifetime of sin. How can I forgive myself, Harold? I do not see any room in the Bible for a beat-up porn star giving birth to the next Samson, Samuel, or even John the Baptist.”
I smiled, “A lot of people say ‘Baptizer’ since John did not belong to one specific denomination.”
Babs made a pouty face. “You know what I meant!”
I laughed, “There is a hint of motherhood in the natural way in Psalm 113, but it does not specifically say. It says that the childless woman will have children in her house. Isaiah 54 says that more are the children of a desolate woman than one who has a husband. It even tells the woman to enlarge her tent. What about that African woman who runs the nursery at Lily the Pink? She has to have helpers to keep up with all the children that she has, if only for part of the day.”
Babs pouted even more. “I heard she is pregnant.”
I sighed, “What I meant was that if you want to feel like a mother, you could volunteer at a nursery or get a parttime nursery attendant job. You did fine today. I’ll have a talk with Jayke.”
Babs grabbed my hand, “Please, don’t. He is young, and he may be missing his Beppe. Little Janella was an angel. Jayke was fine, but the whole ‘What do I call you’ thing reminded me that I am a barren woman.”
I suggested, “Then, let us sing. That’s how Isaiah 54 starts out.”
Babs asked, “What do we sing? Amazing Grace? How Great Thou Art? Blessed Assurance?”
Before we could choose, there was a familiar doorbell ring. Then the door opened. Willie said, “Anybody home?”
I yelled, “We’re in the kitchen. We just finished a Bible Study. We do that every night after supper.”
I saw Babs wiping away her tears.
Willie and the children came in. Willie said, “I asked the children how it went today, and they both said it was great. But then Jayke said that Babs started to cry. I questioned him and he finally came clean. He said that he had no idea what to call you because you were not his Beppe. We had a long conversation, and Jayke has something to say.”
Jayke stepped forward. “I pologize.” His mother corrected him. “I apologize for saying you had no children of your own and you could never be my Beppe. I’m sorry. Would you like being called, ‘Gran Babs?’”
Babs swooped Jayke up in her arms. “Yes, Jayke, I would love to be your Gran Babs.”
Janella approached sheepishly. “I love you, Grabbabs.”
Babs looked to the ceiling and started laughing. “Thank you, Lord, an answer to my prayers. I will take either of those names.” She gathered Janella into a group hug.
Willie came over and held out a book. Babs released her hold on the children to accept the book. Willie said, “We were going to give this to Dad at Christmas. We forgot to wrap it. The book is an old one, 2016. It is from Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Grandparent. I explained to Jayke that being a grandparent did not require someone giving birth to one of your parents. All it takes is having someone who loves you enough to pray for you. In giving you this book, maybe it will make you feel more like you are their grandmother.”
Babs leapt to her feet and hugged Willie. “Thank you. I doubt if I will get a wink of sleep until I have read the entire book. Thank you, so much.”
Credits
All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife. We would talk about anything and everything. And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.
My wife was not barren, although it took us quite some time each time we tried to have a baby. One OBGYN suggested that her having a baby was a miracle, and she had two.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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