She may not be in my circle of friends, she is a servant. I may not keep servants but neither am I one, so she is not in my circle. Yet she comes this afternoon to sit with me and has someone she wants me to see, to meet. She wants me to meet God, to see Him and to know that He sees me.
Philippians 2:5-11 became my pivot for Advent readings and for Lent it is that image of God giving Adam and Eve clothes as they leave the garden.
Gen 3:21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Ros Clarke shares Hagar’s story in such a great way there is little to add. No thought is given to Hagar by Sarai or Abram. They show no compassion or grace and yet she is not with child because of her own doing but because of Sarai and Abram.
God does not give Hagar an escape route out of the circumstances in this case but He shows her He sees her and that is enough to give her strength to go back and carry on. That is not a blue print to be used to tell women to go back to abusive situations today. It is in Scripture though so we don’t skip over it. Maybe it is there to encourage us to be the one who says to someone else we see them, we hear them and to give them the courage to do what they need to do. Be it to escape abuse, be it to keep loving someone who is prickly in the family, be it to keep studying, be it to keep applying for work. To be the one who goes after the person who flees in tears, the one who slips out of church during the last hymn, to sit with the one no one else sees.
Hagar challenges me about who I consider is ‘in my circle’. May I take her up on her invitation.
Father, so often we talk about being the hands and feet of Jesus. May we also be the eyes that see others and go to them and comforts them. Remove the blinkers that we place over our eyes to stop us seeing the brokenness around us. In Jesus name we pray.
https://www.eden.co.uk/lent-books-for-individuals/forty-women/
Joshua's Tree Rooted 