Different kinds of tears...

In yesterday's blog post, I wrote about how God met with Hagar in a desert place and asked her two important questions. Fast forward five chapters and fourteen years, and Hagar finds herself in a similarly desperate situation. Ordered to leave because of brewing rivalry between the two boys, Hagar and Ishmael are once again in the desert.

Was Hagar partly responsible for her son’s attitude towards his half brother, or was she an innocent party this time? Either way, whether you’re the victim of injustice, unkindly cast out by others, or whether you were rejected because of your own wrong attitudes,  the resulting wilderness experience probably feels much the same: you’ve lost all that was familiar, you don’t know what the future holds, and perhaps, like Hagar, you feel as if you are “wandering aimlessly” (Genesis 21:14, NLT) without a clear purpose any more.

When we read the rest of this account, it’s easy to imagine a small baby, crying under a bush. In fact, Ishmael was a 14 year old boy by this time. Hagar’s tears (vs 16) were those of a mother who dreaded watching her son die. But what kind of tears (vs 17) were Ishmael’s? Tears of remorse for how he had treated his baby brother? Tears of anger and frustration at how he had messed up his life and got himself into this horrible situation? Tears of self pity and helplessness because he couldn’t do anything to improve his own lot? Tears of fear because he sensed that he was going to die?

Whatever kind of tears they might have been, the point of grace is that God heard the boy crying (vs 17) and heard Hagar’s fearful tears too. Whether our crying is the outcome of our own selfishness or not, God still hears and God still cares. He spoke first to Hagar, reminding her of His promises and telling her to comfort her son. Then God opened her eyes (vs 19) and she saw a well of water that had been there all the time.  Sometimes our tears and our fears blind our eyes to God’s sovereign solutions in the wilderness we find ourselves in.

Both Hagar and Ishmael had given up hope; they saw no way out of their depressing circumstances... and yet there was a way forward for both of them. God spoke first to Hagar, showing her the well of water needed for their immediate survival. And then He was with Ishmael, helping him not only survive in the desert, but even thrive in it: he became a skillful archer who knew how to hunt for food in that sort of terrain. To this day, Ishmael’s descendants live in desert lands and have discovered how to find wealth in a seemingly hostile and unpromising environment.

Whether your desert is of your own making or was caused by things beyond your control, whatever the cause of your tears and fears, God hears, God cares, and God has a solution. Listen to Him today.