Even here, I am looked after

 Hagar In The Wilderness

The lamentation of the stricken mother in the desert is pathetically portrayed; the empty water-flask-now 

cast aside as a useless thing-and the out-stretched figure of the dying child are also. Hagar was destitute. 

Yet God had opened her eyes to see the vivifying well of water, wherewith to fill her bottle and restore her son. 

 March 4, 2012

by sherry

 Terence & I are living in an extreme place with cancer. I say extreme, because it is. 

Everything that we deal with on a daily basis is extreme. 

Cancer can be a thief who attempts to come into our house every day to steal from us. 

 If we're not careful, that's what we see........a thief.....stealing, killing and destroying

 our lives and our future.

Along the subject of what you see,  I was reading the scriptures today and came across the story of Hagar and her son Ishmael.  A long story short, Hagar was sent out of the camp into the desert with her son.  Hagar was feeling destitute and afraid for her and her son's future and she cried out.  Then an angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid", Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.  She filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy as he grew up.

   

Genesis 16:13 explains the name as a result of Hagar crying out, “Beer-lahai-roi”- The Well of the Living One who sees me....."Even here have I am looked after by the One seeing me!"  

On my worst days I am disheveled and depressed- those are the days I fight the feelings of sadness and loneliness, my heart breaking for the one I love, cancer and it's effects making me feel anxious for our future-----it's on those days, that I desperately desire two things:

1. to be reminded that God sees us and is looking after us in our despair.

2. for the Lord to open our eyes so we can see the well of water",

 which is hope for our future.

It has been said of Hagar that her wilderness cried of the presence and the absence of God. All of us live through life wilderesses that cry of the presence and absence of God.  But God speaks out of the silence: "I hear! I See! I hear the mother crying."

God Hears and sees us in the  in the Wilderness
In wilderness places (our difficult times) one experiences both the presence and the absence of God. When we find ourselves in the wilderness most are afraid. Many are in despair. A few are frozen, immobilized, paralyzed–unable to move, much less able to get themselves back on the journey of getting to a better place. No matter what makes your place a wilderness, wilderness places can be lonely.

 The Genesis story describes such a lonely wilderness place, the place where Hagar and her son were sent.  But the  "absent God" was not absent at all; he was present in her misery. "Do not be afraid," He  said to Hagar. "Open your eyes. I have heard the child, and I know the child's sufferings. Pick him up and comfort him. Open your eyes. There is water for him. See the well and give him a drink."

I pray that our eyes will be opened and we will see the well of water that God has provided for us and that we will know that He never leaves us or forsakes us, even during extreme 

moments of loneliness and despair.

 

        "Even here I am looked after by the One seeing me"

                                            Sherry