And God Heard

Are you waiting for God to answer your frantic prayers for a child or another loved one?

There’s a young woman in Genesis who discovered God’s tender heart in the moment she wept over her teenage boy. Her name wasn’t Eve or Sarah. It wasn’t Rebekah or Esther or Rachel. None of those feminine heroes of the Old Testament.

It was Hagar.

A woman who had a relationship with her mistress’s husband. I don’t know if she could’ve said no–maybe in that culture she couldn’t. But the bottom line is, she became pregnant and was eventually cast out because her son would forever be pitted against Abraham and Sarah’s “legitimate” heir. It’s a sad story, especially since it was most likely not a situation of Hagar’s choosing.

It’s sad . . . but, I love how it winds up.

Here they are wandering in the desert, out of food and water. Hagar was so distraught over Ishmael that she parked him under a tree and walked a short distance away so she wouldn’t have to watch him die.

Are you walking with her? Can you hear her weeping, begging God for help?

The Scriptures say God did help. “So she sat…and lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad…” Genesis 21:17 (NKJV)

Wait–did you catch that?

Hagar begged for an answer, and God was listening to Ishmael!

I like the Message version of this passage: “Meanwhile, God heard the boy crying. The angel of God called from Heaven to Hagar, ‘What’s wrong, Hagar. Don’t be afraid. God has heard the boy and knows the fix he’s in . . .‘”

What’s the lesson for us here? It’s very simple.

God was already at work for Ishmael.

While we weep and beseech God to help our children, longing to see answers, He is already busy in their lives–working where we can’t see, changing them from the inside out and doing in them what only He can do.

We, even as parents and grandparents, are no match for the power of God in the lives of our children.

So, keep on praying, my friends–but remember that God loves our children and grandchildren more than we’ll ever know, and often works in ways we can’t see.