With Isaac finally born, we must take a moment to marvel at the miracle of a child being born from a woman who was barren during her childbearing years and has passed through menopause. In that sense, Sarah’s womb is twice dead in terms of fertility. It is almost as if it is not enough to restore fertility to a woman who was barren; God also waits to do so until after her ovaries have shut down. We become so used to reading about miracles in the pages of the Bible that it is easy to lose an appreciation for how startling they are. In an attempt to recover the wonder, let’s take a moment to observe the responses to such an occurrence in a modern medical context. The details of the following account were reported in the Chicago Tribune, September 8, 1981.

A woman whose ovaries ceased to function almost three years ago has given birth to a healthy 9-pound baby girl, baffling doctors at three hospitals. “It is impossible, impossible,” the 35-year-old woman quoted one of the doctors as saying when he detected a fetal heartbeat. In effect, the birth took place after the woman … had gone through menopause, her doctors said.

The woman had been diagnosed with premature ovarian failure and was told she did not have to worry about getting pregnant. A further complication was that the woman was on hormone medications to ease the symptoms of menopause. These medications typically serve as effective contraceptives. Dr. Jerry Rakoff, director of the Scripps Clinic Medical Group’s Fertility Center had confirmed the diagnosis of another physician but was also the one who eventually discovered that the patient was pregnant.

Rakoff said neither he nor Dr. John Willens, the University Hospital physician who delivered the baby on August 18, had ever heard of birth by a woman with a well-documented case of premature ovarian failure.… Rakoff said that there is no medical therapy to reverse premature ovarian failure. He said that he and Willens believe an egg may have been left after the ovaries shut down.

We can see that even in today’s world of medical sophistication, this is a remarkable obstacle for God to overcome.

12 So Sarah laughed to herself saying, “After I am worn out and my husband is old, shall this pleasure be to me?”