Sarah laughs to herself, thinking: 'After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?' The inner laugh — to herself — is the honest response of a woman who has been waiting ninety years for this promise. 'Worn out' is honest; 'my lord is old' is gentle. The laugh carries decades of deferred hope, of monthly disappointments, of watching the years strip away the biological possibility one by one. Yet the laugh also carries something else — the faint possibility of delight in the word 'pleasure' (Hebrew: ednah, related to Eden — delight, pleasure). The same laughter that Abraham had in Genesis 17:17 now visits Sarah. The laughter of the impossible thing. Hebrews 11:11 will say she considered him faithful who had made the promise — but not yet. First, the laugh.

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