Hannah

Hannah wanted a son so bad that she promised the Lord that she would immediately offer him up to the Lord. This seems a little counterproductive. She didn't say, Lord , if you bless me with children - plural - I'll give you the first one and then I get to keep the rest. She wanted so badly to be a mother that she did not see it as too big a sacrifice to become a mother but then instantly surrender her child to the Lord. And unlike with Abraham, no angel came to Hannah to stop her from sacrificing her son. But the word that gets used in 1 Samuel is loan. I can't imagine how hard it was for Hannah to leave what she wanted most in her life at the temple with the High Priest, but she knew that this was still her son and that they would be together for all eternity, even if she could not see him in this life as often as she would have liked. And though it wasn't part of the original bargain, the Lord blessed Hannah with five more children. The Lord may ask us to loan Him much, but He pays back much, much more in interest. When we follow Hannah's example and give all we have to the Lord, He will bless us in ways we can't even imagine.