Feeling Forgotten (Friday Devotional)

“So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.””

- Genesis 21:14-17

Sometimes it feels like everyone is being blessed but you. You look at your friends and coworkers and neighbors, and you see nothing but their abundance and your deficiencies: Terry from college is headed to Hawaii for 2 weeks on the company dime while you save up for a weekend in San Antonio; Greg has a brand new Cadillac parked in his driveway while your 1996 Saturn is creeping toward its 300,000^th mile; Cindy from accounting is having her fourth baby in six years even as you’re dropping thousands of dollars on fertility treatments. Everyone, it seems, is enjoying life’s rewards—maybe even God’s favor—except for you. You start to wonder if God has forgotten you.

If anyone in Scripture had a right to feel that way, it was Hagar, an Egyptian slave of Abraham the patriarch. We are introduced to her in Genesis 16, when she is the object of a plan devised by Abraham’s wife, Sarah. Having been promised by God that she will bear a child in her old age, Sarah gets impatient and takes matters into her own hands, telling Abraham that he should sleep with Hagar and produce a son through her, just in case God doesn’t come through on His promise. Abraham goes along with the plan and Hagar gives birth to a son, Ishmael.

The conflict comes when God, faithful to His covenant with Abraham, gives him and Sarah a son of their own, Isaac. Through Isaac and his descendants, God promises, will come a great people that will bless all the nations of the world. But Isaac’s birth makes Hagar and Ishmael expendable in Sarah’s eyes—after all, now that God has given them their promised son, they have no need of this spare. Sarah demands that Hagar be cast out of Abraham’s household, and the patriarch complies, sending Hagar and Ishmael on their way.

I cannot imagine Hagar’s grief, anger, and hopelessness at this point. So far she has had no agency in her story—she did not ask to bear Abraham’s son; that was a choice made for her. She did not ask for him to be replaced by Isaac; that was a choice made by God. She did not ask to be cast out of the family; that was a choice made by Sarah and Abraham. Now she finds herself alone in the wilderness with her son, finally free to make her own decisions, but devoid of any security, direction, or hope.

Hagar must have felt like she and Ishmael were immaterial to God’s plans, like He saw them as nothing more than the slaves they had been in Abraham’s household. There was no evidence in her life thus far that God cared about her or her son. Abraham was the patriarch, Sarah the wife, Isaac the promised child, but Hagar was just the slave girl; Ishmael just the backup plan. So, presuming that she and her son were destined for deaths as ignominious as their lives had been, Hagar set him beneath a bush and retreated a good distance away, not wanting to have to watch him die.

It was then that something happened which gave Hagar her first glimmer of hope, hope that still speaks to those who feel forgotten today. Through an angel from heaven, God told Hagar that He had “heard the boy where he is.” In her darkest hour, when her only experience had been oppression and abandonment, God assured Hagar that He was with her and her son.

If you are feeling forgotten, draw encouragement from the story of Hagar and Ishmael. Even for those whose lives are not marked by victory after victory, God is present. He loves the Isaacs, but He also loves the Ishmaels. He loves the Sarahs, but He also loves the Hagars. When you feel alone, forgotten, and abandoned, like God is blessing everyone but you, know this: no matter what path life puts you on, God walks it with you.