Station 2: Hagar and Ishmael

Before reading, take a moment to tune into the Spirit.

Get comfortable where you are sitting. Feel free to light a candle or close your eyes. 

Take a few deep breaths and focus on the movement of the air gently expanding and contracting your lungs. 

Be still and know that this is the Spirit rushing through you.

When you are ready, begin by meditating on these words.

Hagar found herself in a situation she couldn’t control. 

You can read about it in Genesis 21:1-21. It was a Maury show disaster. 

She ends up wandering through the dry desert with her son. 

Sometimes we experience the consequences of decisions made out of our control. 

Sometimes we are faced with confronting judgements made about you in rooms that you are not present in.

God calls out to Hagar, who is just on the cusp of giving up. 

He speaks to her purpose and the potential of her son. 

When you feel down and dismissed, look to the Son. Your promise is in him.

God sends a well to nourish and sustain her and her child. 

When the world was dark and dry, God sent the Living Water to sustain us. 

Take with You

Hagar didn’t have any control over her situation at all. She was a slave, who was forced by her mistress to bear a child for her master and was then sent away because of it. (This mistreatment of Hagar the Egyptian slave is mirrored later by the enslavement of Israel in Egypt.) 

But Hagar calls God “the One who sees me”. 

Hagar experienced the feeling of being seen and known by her Creator. So much so, that when she was sent away, God saw her. He didn’t speak to her at the level everyone else saw her. He spoke to the potential in her son. When you feel misjudged and alone, God will remind you of the promises revealed in the Son. He sees you. He knows you. He calls you by who you really are, not what others put on you. 

Genesis 21:1-21