When God visits

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. (Genesis 21:1, NIV)

The NIV translation is very interesting when it says, “the Lord was gracious to Sarah.”

Most translations say “The Lord came to Sarah” or “The Lord visited Sarah.”

After a little digging, what I found was that in the Old Testament, the words “The Lord came” or “The Lord visited” often has the nuance of the Lord coming either to bless or to curse.

And in this case, he came to bless Sarah, just as he had promised, giving her a son.

Hundreds of years later, the Lord would visit another woman named Mary. And in doing so, he kept another promise: to send a Savior to save us all.

And as John tells us, from Jesus, we have received “grace upon grace.” (John 1:16)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15)