A Stream in the Desert
Genesis 16:1-14 tells of Sarai’s attempt to insure God’s promise to provide Abram with a son did not go unfulfilled. Because she had not been able to conceive herself, she gave her servant Hagar to Abram. In those days, this was a customary and legal practice.
Sarai’s plan worked. Hagar conceived a child by Abram, but it didn’t turn out to be the happy occasion Sarai had hoped for. The scripture says contempt for Sarai grew in Hagar’s heart. Perhaps she desired to take Sarai’s place in Abram’s home and in his heart. According to the passage, Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar. We aren’t given the details, but the situation must have been very bad because Hagar fled into the wilderness.
I imagine Hagar was afraid, not only for herself, but for her baby. Did she feel alone, hopeless? Perhaps the wilderness she experienced was not only the physical location she found herself in, but also a wilderness of the mind and emotions. Have you ever been there? Feels vast doesn’t it? As though it might go on forever.
I was reading this account one day last last summer. I’d gone out onto the patio to enjoy the cool morning before the scorching heat of an Alabama August made any place that wasn’t air-conditioned unbearable. As I read, I began to realize my soul had felt dry and thirsty for a long time, and as far as I could tell, there was no end in sight. Sitting there with the sounds of a summer morning all around me, I confessed, “I’m there, Lord. I’m in the wilderness.”
It was the first time I’d acknowledged this to myself, much less in prayer, and I lingered in the moment absorbed in my confession and the weight of its truth. With eyes fixed on the page before me, I became so lost in thought the world around me dimmed and grew distant.
Moments passed then slowly, as though being pulled from a dream, I became aware of a nearby low, steady hum. Lifting my eyes, I saw a hummingbird hovering no more than a foot from my face. We examined each other for what felt like a long time, and somehow I knew something extraordinary was taking place. In reality, the encounter lasted only seconds, but in that brief space of time my spirit quickened with the knowledge that I had been seen.
I watched the tiny bird dart away and whispered, “God was that you?”
“The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert.”
With heart pounding, I went back to the text and reread verse seven. “The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert.” In the desolate place water flowed.
Isn’t that just like God? To show up in the most unexpected of places, in the most unexpected of ways?
The desert is not void of God’s presence. The children of Israel experienced this firsthand. They wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and God was there. A cloud by day and a fire by night. Is he not also there for me in the dry places of my life?
Many times I struggle. Often times I feel alone. I may wonder if I’ll ever see another green valley or reach the top of another mountain, but the truth is that God is walking me through the barren places just as he did for the children of Israel. For them, he was not only shade from the sun, but also a fire that both warmed them and lit their way in the darkness.
“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” ”
That momentary face-to-face encounter with a tiny hummingbird was like a cool drink from a flowing spring. Even now many months later, all I have to do is think of it, and I’m reminded that God knows exactly where I am. I have seen the One who sees me.
How has God refreshed you in a dry place?