Hannah's Place

Winton had a gift that mined the truth through his conversations, even in the studio.   Photography was what he loved to do, but he knew fully well, that freeing hearts was his purpose.  Having the camera and lights, and a knact for getting to the moment, Winton skillfully pulled to the outside, things that were hidden beneath the surface.  Sometimes, as with Hannah, Winton needed discernment.

Now late morning under the fall sky and crisp air, Hannah turned her back to Winton and glared from behind for one of the best shots he'd ever seen.  With the breeze through her hair, Hannah was coming alive for the camera.  "There's something inside you Hannah, and I want to see it!"  Winston began to pull; this is where his coaching was known to capture what was invisible to other photographers.  "Why are you hiding Hannah?"  "What are you hurting from?   Winton struck a cord, and as Hannah turned to face him, she raised her blue shawl to cover her face, leaving only her eyes for the lense. At that moment, it seemed even the leaves stood still.  What an amazingly captivating and  pricelesss frame.  This was it!  Hannah's eyes spilled the truth.  She had learned how to hide behind this guard rail when she was really languishing inside.  Winton lowered the camera to his side without taking the shot, letting Hannah have this place to breathe.  Some of us share her ability to keep her true self behind the wall, but perhaps not her fortune to find a place to let it go.

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There's another Hannah that perhaps shows us our reflection.  She was married to a man named Elkanah, who loved her, in fact, favored her.  But   Elkanah had two wives; an entirely different conversation than we will have here, but while one, Penninah, was able to conceive children, Hannah was barren.  The very thought of barreness meant empitness, a useless, purposeless existence.  To Hannah, childbearing was as critical to her llfe as the breath she breathed; in fact without a womb that carried children, Hannah felt insignificant and paltry. Taunted daily by Penninah, who delivered child after child, Hannah's life was a tortured life.  Penninah was a rival, a bullying, pain inflicting rival, but she was fertile.  1 Samuel 1:6-16  gives us the depth of Hannah's grief, the love Elkanah had for her, and, this is where I hope we'!ll see ourselves, the drivng force for Hannah finding her place!

If you've ever wondered why God has shut the womb of your life, while a cruel enemy flaunts your deepest desire, you've felt the pain of Hannah.  If you've ever wondered why you can't seem to cry enough tears, then you have felt the pain of Hannah.  If you've ever had the love of your life but it couldn't replace what you did not have, you've felt the pain of Hannah.  Under the weight of all that sat on her soul, she made her way to the temple. Breathless, Hannah prayed without a voice, but she was here.

Unable to hear her prayers, Eli the Priest mistook Hannah for a drunkened woman.  Isn't that what happens, another layer is added, another something atop of the load?  But here, Hannah could stand up to it and say, I am sorrowful!  I am grieving!  I have something I want from the Lord!  Because before Eli, she had talked to God. "Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me!"  Hannah made a vow to the true God, and while it had been spewed over and over, that He had shut up her womb, Hannah still called Him the Lord Almighty!  From this place Hannah could go back home knowing she was answered and she began to bear children.  Surely she'd cried in her own chambers but couldn't be comforted there. But this!  This was the place that would change her life!

My place is to be laid prostrate under my prayer shawl with soaking music and my voice reaching for God.  My God!  There's no place else to empty and be filled.  Hannah's place was the temple.  Yours may be in the sanctuary when no one else is there, but wherever you find a place for your knees, you'll see that the emptying comes first.  You see, before Hannah's womb could carry her answered prayer, she had to unload those things that filled the space.  The pain and the bitterness and the jealousy, the disappointment; everything that occupied the children's place.  Hannah had to release her anguish, and honor the God who had not answered her prayers.  "Lord Almighty!  Remember me!"

Where is YOUR place?   What will you carry there?  What will you leave there?  What will you say to the God who has not answered your prayers?  Go, and get what you came for from the Lord.

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