The Baby Promised Before He Was Born

There was a woman who had no baby.

She wanted one so much that she had stopped saying so. Every morning her arms woke up empty. Every night they went to sleep empty. She wanted a child the way the dry ground wants rain, deep down, all the time.

The years went by, and still no baby came. No little feet running in. No small voice calling her name.

She must have wondered: Maybe God has forgotten me. Maybe my arms will always be this empty.

But God had not forgotten her. God never forgets.

One day she was out in the field, all alone, when a stranger came and stood near her. Only he was not a stranger, not really. He was a messenger, sent straight from heaven. His face was so bright and so kind it was almost frightening.

He said, "You are going to have a baby."

Just like that. The very thing she had stopped letting herself hope for. The angel said it the way you say something that is already true, as if the baby were as good as born, as if heaven had been planning this little boy all along, before she ever cried a single tear.

Long before, God had made the same kind of promise to old Sarah in her tent, and Sarah had laughed, and a year later she was holding baby Isaac. God loves to bring babies to empty arms.

"He will be special," the angel said. "Set apart. He will be the one who begins to rescue God's people."

The woman ran to find her husband. Come, come quickly. A man came from God and told me. We are going to have a son.

Her husband could hardly believe it. So he prayed, "Please, let him come again. Teach us. We do not know how to raise a boy like this."

And God, who is so gentle with frightened parents, sent the messenger back. He came again. He stood with them, and a flame rose up toward heaven, and the two of them fell down with their faces to the ground, full of wonder.

And then the baby came, just as the angel had promised. They held him at last. Their arms were empty no more.

His name was Samson. He grew up to be very strong, and he began to rescue his people from their enemies. But he could only begin it. No strong man could ever finish it.

Everything in this story pointed forward: an angel sent from heaven, a waiting heart, a baby announced before he was even born, a rescuer promised into empty, aching arms.

It was a small first telling of a much greater one. Long after Samson, another angel would come, to another woman who could hardly believe it, with news of another baby. That baby would finish what Samson could only begin, because he himself would be the rescue.

His name would be Jesus.

But first, little Samson had some growing up to do. Turn the page, and see what God did with all that strength.