Suggested Reading : Genesis 21: 14 – 21 ;
Matthew 9: 21 – 26
Scripture Emphasis:
Genesis 21:15 – 16.
When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, ‘ I cannot watch the boy die.’ And as she sat there, she began o sob.”
These words usher us into the chamber of suffering, ravaging a mother’s soul. The mood swings that invade an individual’s life are merciless! In a moment, they can force a person to ‘ swing between Heavens Gate and Hell Gate.’ (2)
The way of the world has never been kind to the crown jewel of God’s creation. Following their lingering walk with God, in The Garden of Eden; the human’s journey becomes obtuse because of human disobedience. A fiery sword stands to block the way of ease and the intimate communion with God. Men must earn their bread in the sweat of their brows; in pain must the women bear their children.
Millions, the world over, seek ways to circumvent the fiery sword and to discover other means of ease and fulfillment.
The Bible provides a unique response to the hardships of this life. In spite of the myriad of purported solutions, It is ‘from the pages of ‘Holy Writ’ that there comes the one light to illuminate that human dilemma,’ when life renders us helpless.”
A conscious decision is made here, not to indulge in a repetition of the historical details and, the religious themes found in the story chosen for our consideration. I propose, rather, a reflection of more general issues which are familiar to all people everywhere.
The curtain rises on the torturing pain that fills a mother’s soul as she faces absolute helplessness. The desert’s blistering heat has sapped the energy of both the mother and her child. The discovery of an empty water-jar intensifies her crisis. The pitiful cry of her thirsty child is just too much for her. She considers running from the heart-wrenching scene but, love constrains her.
It will remain forever, I suspect, the most bitter of all human experiences; to feel the immortal chords of love, binding us to a situation, where we are helpless to render service to the one that love compels.
“And then Hagar went and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, I cannot watch the boy die.” So she sat there and wept! And I could weep with her.
The cry of a child dying of thirst, punctuated by the sobs of the helpless, tortured mother, are the only sounds in the desert’s cruel silence! Are these vicious realities not what will make the recall of this day dreaded for as long as her life lasts? The memory of the tragic circumstances that initiated this whole ordeal, coupled with the present crushing outcome, leave Hagar, a broken object on the desert floor.
Consider this eternal truth: it is never God’s way, to abandon any human being, as a mere plaything of fate and cruel circumstances.
God’s action now transforms Hagar’s consciousness. No longer is the destructive content of this moment, that ravages her soul, ln control; instead, it is God Who intercepts the catastrophic moment!
That transformation of consciousness is the one happening that can rescue Hagar from the tragedy threatening to consume the remainder of her life.
God counterbalances the sound of her child’s crying with an action that transforms her life forever. ( Genesis 21: 19) “Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.”
No experience of helplessness should ever become a brand, marking any portion of time, in one’s life. God desires to transform human consciousness into a knowledge of His immanent Presence! The onward thrust of God’s Spirit is irresistible, not in the sense that it nowhere encounters obstacles, checks, and frustrations but in the sense that its direction is set (3). In the end, it will prevail. All that we must remember is to surrender to this certainty.
Prayer To Follow This Meditation
O God, our Father, Whose eye never fails to see all the situations that can leave a person feeling helpless in this life; whose ear never fails to hear the sound of love unable to deliver it’s gift to the beloved; whose own heart of redeeming Love paid the price on the Cross to rescue each one of us from the experience of helplessness, we surrender all!
Remind us ever that the dark sky of evening merely provides a black background of velvet to magnify the glory of the evening star! All that contributes to the darkened skies of our seeming helplessness is only the background that magnifies the glorious presence of God. Helplessness is not found in a theology of faith! O God help us to eradicate it from our vocabulary, and even more from the experience of every human in this world! Trusting in the victory won for us in Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.
Hymn: Be Still My Soul
EDITORIAL NOTES
- All the Scripture references are from the NIV translation of Scripture
2. There will always be the church and the world
by T. S. Eliot
“There shall always be the Church and the World
And the Heart of Man
Shivering and fluttering between them, choosing and chosen,
Valiant, ignoble, dark and full of light
Swinging between Hell Gate and Heaven Gate.
And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail”. 3. See “Thomas Merton On Prayer” https://learn25.com/product/thomas-merton-on-prayer/
4. Stock photo from the web used here to illustrate ” Helplessness”