"So David prevailed . . . with a sling and with a stone . . . " 1 Samuel 17:50
Fleeting sun, departing friend,
Who calls to you, our joy to end?
Who beckons your redeeming rays
To other lands with longer days?
Did I despise your brightening hues,
Or seek another’s love to choose?
I cannot think what’s caused this rift
Between our ways. (The shadows shift.)
Your silken train of golden hair
Slips past my steps, my garden chair.
Departing glance. . . your back is all
Can see my face, return my call:
Forsake this way, time’s mystery.
Return to stay and shine on me.
“The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’”
Seldom appearing in the lists of biblical heroes, Hagar and her story give me hope and a reminder.
Born in Egypt, Hagar finds herself hundreds of miles from anything familiar as a house servant to a Hebrew woman who cannot bear children. The woman’s husband has been promised by God that all of humanity will be blessed through his offspring, and it is between this promise and the couple’s doubts that Hagar’s destiny is defined. She becomes a man-made solution to a God-sized challenge. Unknowingly, she moves from obscurity to history’s center stage.
. . . and it’s showtime.
Continue reading “On the way to Shur”
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