Sarah was tired of waiting. She had waited into her 80 plus years for God to give her the child he had promised Abraham many years ago. Her solution: give her slave Hagar to Abraham so Hagar could bear the child she had not. How did Hagar feel about it? We don't know; what we can know is she had no choice in the matter. Sarah did not consult God; she just made her perfectly reasonable suggestion to her husband. Surprise! He agreed. Now he could have said no to her, but instead, he agreed. The result was family resentments and problems which still exist today.

God took their not-so-good solution and gave us an illustration of how he expresses grace to the whole world. God wants us to know nothing is impossible for him, including finishing the creation he began—mankind into the image of God.

Unlike Hagar, we do have a choice. God wants us to choose life in Christ because he has some awesome future in mind for us all. Like with Hagar, God sees and hears our misery. In Christ, Abraham's Seed (Galatians 3:16), we become sons of God and heirs with Christ of God's everlasting covenant.