I can hear Daddy’s heartbeat

This morning I was blessed to minister to precious people in a retirement village. I have joined the pastor to go there every month in 2008 already and have been going ever since. Those people know me and they are very dear to me.

Everyone gets a hug when we arrive and everyone returns the love even more.

This morning God had moved me to speak on something He had shown me when I was in hospital. On a Sunday morning, He had woken me up very early to direct me to read 2 chapters of the book of Genesis. Then, curled up in pain, I started to worship to songs on my phone when 2 sisters came in. They had both shared with me that they had recently given their lives to Christ. They took my hands and joined me in worship for a few minutes. Then I ministered preached out of the two chapters and prayed for them. We actually had CHURCH at my hospital bed that morning.

Now today it was my turn to minister and I felt to preach out of those 2 chapters. As I was preparing Father God actually drew my attention to an even greater theme in those chapters and that is what I will share with you now: God’s Loving-kindness that compels us to respond.

I want to speak about chapter 16 and 21 of Genesis. Both chapters are about Hagar. Hagar was Sarai and Abram’s maidservant from Egypt. She was a slave, a bondwman. Abram and Sarai had been waiting for 10 years for God’s promise to come to pass. Yet Sarai was still barren and could not have children. After Sarai told Abram to sleep with her bondwoman so that she could have an heir as well and Abram did that, the sequence of events lead us to follow Hagar into the wilderness where she fled after being mistreated by her mistress Sarai. Yes Hagar did feel so good when she fell had fallen pregnant and she rubbed it in Sarai’s face. But now she was desperate. She was running away and she was pregnant. No, she was not in God’s covenant with Abram. She was not part of that neither was her unborn child. What devastation. And what happened? God showed up! Our God showed up! He showed such loving-kindness, mercy and loyal love and kindness as He speaks to Hagar. He knows her name. He calls her by her name: “Hagar, Sarai’s maid”. Wow. He knew Hagar; He knew where she was and where she had come from. What a beautiful picture of God’s loving-kindness. Again, Hagar was not in God’s covenant and yet came to her and even gave her a promise about her soon to be born son. This touched my heart so much. It made me marvel at God’s love which is unconditional.

This is our God..a God who cares for the details, who hears a maidservant crying out in the wilderness – a God who sees: EL ROI. Hagar calls HIM the God-Who-Sees after this encounter with Him (Genesis 16v 13). She had a real experience with the Living God. How beautiful.

And then when we fast-forward to chapter 21 when Isaac, the son and heir in the line of God’s covenant with Abraham was born, we can witness another beautiful display of God’s loving-kindness. When Hagar and her now 13 year old son Ishmael were cast out and ended up in the wilderness again, what happened? God showed up AGAIN. He encourages and comforts Hagar. He hears Ishmael’s cry and acts, provides water for them and the Bible says that God is with them. Here again, I like to emphasize that Hagar and Ishmael were not part of God’s covenant. In the book of Galatians (chapter 4 v 22-31), Paul even calls them symbols of bondage, symbols of the law and flesh as opposed to Isaac who symbolizes God’s promise. And yet God showed up. This is our God. He is concerned about the detail, concerned about the human being that is distressed, in despair and without hope. God’s unfailing love is what touches me here again and again.

How about you?

There are so many examples of God’s loving-kindness in the Bible but the one of Hagar rally strikes me, moves me, encourages me.

Thank you dear Heavenly Father for your heart towards us,

Thank you for your love, your unconditional love.