Devotionals

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Wounded and oppressed, she ran, unseen.

Throughout night’s dark shadows Hagar pushed onward, staggering through desert places where dry, dusty footsteps marked her lone passage.

Did moonlight beams cast heavenly light upon the sands stretched before her as she traveled to...nowhere? Did she recognize the heart from which they flowed?

Was courage for her soul found in the solitude, or did night’s heightened voices echo throughout her being the fear that had driven her away in the beginning?

Her heart sought sanctuary. A silent cry driving her onward, searching. Her soul longed for home where love wove a garment for her heart that would never tear or become threadbare.

She’d fled the place of tattered, frayed love. But barrenness was all that met her in this desertscape extending endlessly before her.

And she thirsted. How she thirsted.

Stumbling to a desert spring, she drank deeply. Then crumpled in despair when their waters left her thirst bitterly unquenched.

All the while, throughout her wanderings, carried in each shed tear, love watched and waited. Then, when she was ready to hear, love spoke her name. With threads of love the garment wove knowingly about her, embracing her heart forever.


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We cannot help but recognize Hagar’s heart. It beats in unison with our own. Voicing the same cries. Shedding the same tears. Harboring the same longings. And as Hagar’s seeking heart drove her into desert places, so does ours. Searching for waters that will quench our own bitter thirst.

All the while the Living Water calls our name. Clearly. And less we miss that it is our name He calls, He tells us who we are. And he asks the same question of our heart that He asked Hagar.

Where are you going?

And when we tell Him we are fleeing? El Roi, the One Who Lives and Sees Me, calls us to return to His heart. To that place of blessing that never runs dry. And that garment of Himself that He has woven, thread by love-twined thread, wraps gently around us, assuring our hearts we truly are home!


[Reflections on Genesis 16:7-14]


© DeAnna L. Brooks
6 January 2005

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