Hagar in the Wilderness …God sees and takes care of the troubled

As a child, I was told “God is watching you all the time. He sees everything you do.” Unfortunately, this was communicated in a negative sense … ‘God is watching you, so shape up kid!’ So the idea of God watching me became a distinctly uncomfortable concept, because I knew I sinned fairly frequently and that God didn’t like that. My childlike response was just not to think about that.

But a few years ago, I noticed for the first time the story of Hagar. She’s the mother of Abraham’s other son …

what on earth is God thinking?

I am reading through Genesis at the moment, and getting ready to preach about Abraham on Sunday. And I never cease to be amazed at what a goober he is. It is so odd and wondrous to look at the biblical accounts of people like Abram and and realize that all throughout history, God has been putting up with people’s crap.