Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

This Sunday our lectionary reading is: 1 Samuel 1:9-11, 19-20, 2:1-10 - Hannah who is barren and cries out her prayer to God for a son. She is eventually given a son and she prays a long and beautiful prayer of praise to God.

As a woman who has been crying and praying for a second child for almost 5 years, this reading both gives me hope and it gives me pain. My husband and I tried for 2 years after we were married for a child and of course when we least expected it, we were blessed beyond measure with a daughter. As soon as it was safe to conceive again (I had an emergency cesarean section)we began trying. Now it's been nearly 5 years and still no hope.

The part of this reading that is difficult for me is the part where God hears her prayer and gives her what she has asked for. What does it mean for me and for all the other families out there for whom no child is ever given? Does God not hear us? Does God not find favour with us?

As a woman who HAS had her prayer answered with my daughter, I can certainly understand Hannah's beautiful prayer of praise - I know I will never forget the day I took the same test I'd taken every month for 2 years and there was a line where I'd never seen a line before. My daughter is 5 and a half now and still every single day I thank God for her - even on those days when she drives me insane!

If I leave the questions that come with God answering Hannah's prayers aside, knowing that Hannah's prayer was answered, and experiencing a beautiful daughter in answer to my own prayer, it is a reminder that God is with us in all we do, all we feel, and while we may never get the answer we want, God is still there with us through it all.

This Sunday my congregation is celebrating its 186th Anniversary and the theme of God is with us through it all feels like a very appropriate place to begin. Our congregation began with men and women who immigrated to the area from Scotland, and the travel they took to get to Canada and the starting of a new life here would have been harrowing in 1830. I imagine during the trip they cried out to God in prayers of help and protection. Through the trip they were assured of God's presence with them, and I imagine that their prayer of praise to God sounded a lot like Hannah's prayer of praise.