A Note To Parents

It has been a rough couple weeks and you have been asked by your government to do a hard thing. It is not an impossible thing but it is a hard thing. Your resiliency and stress level are being stretched to the max and the future is unknown at this point.

Many people are talking about how they are bored and have too much time on their hands, but you are looking around wondering how you will get a break and some breathing space. Other are talking about cleaning and sorting out their home and you are just trying to keep up with all the new tasks that are before you.

Looking ahead might feel exhausting.

Within a week, all parents, everywhere were suddenly trying to figure out how to educate their children from home, to make ends meet in this time, to care for their kids without the helpful hands of grandparents or babysitters or teachers, and, on top of that, navigate out how to work from home too.

And it is hard.

It might feel like, in the midst of all of that is going on, that you have been forgotten. It might feel like sheltering in place and looking after your home is a bigger job that anyone was supposed to carry. And that is true because you were never meant to carry it alone.

I have been thinking about the story of Hagar these past weeks.

You can read her story in Genesis 16 but Hagar found herself unmarried, with child, and being mistreated by a jealous Sarai. She flees to the desert with no food, no home, no help, and has run away for her own safety and the safety of her unborn child. A woman in the ancient Middle East would have been in a situation we can’t imagine - Hagar was understood to be only a piece of property and there was no social safety net for her. The wilderness was full of wild vicious animals or hostile humans.

She was completely destitute and totally alone.

In verse 7, it says this,

“The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; “ (Genesis 16:7)

The angel of the Lord is a bit of an unknown character but it is the same being that wrestled with Jacob. Most would say that it is either a very important angel or God himself appearing in visible form.

And in Hagar’s story, it says that the angel of the Lord FOUND her. She does not cry out and then is answered by a God who was sleeping or aloof. No, she was found by a God who knew what was happening and was present and aware. A God who went to her even before she knew to ask for help.

The angel of the Lord asks her what has happened and tells her to return to Sarai and to name her child Ishmael, “for the Lord has heard of your misery.” (Genesis 16:11)

And then Hagar says this,

“ ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.’”  (Genesis 16:13)

The name she gives God, in Hebrew, is El Roi - the God who sees.

God found Hagar in the lonely wilderness.

God heard Hagar’s misery.

God blessed her.

And God sees you, right now in your country, on your street, and in your home. You are not outside of His gaze and He is attentive to you. You are seen by the God who has infinite resources.

God has the amazing ability to fully care about everyone at the same time, in their unique circumstances. He IS big enough.

There is a lot of evidence that God is preferential to mothers/those who care for children. In Mark 13:17 and Luke 21:23 , Jesus speaks about end times and of all the groups of people that He could chose to be concerned about, He is concerned about the mothers, the ones who will be pregnant and nursing when the day of the Lord happens, and the ones who will be caring for the children when the difficult days come. Jesus knows how hard it is to care for children because He has been doing it for all time. And He sees mothers and fathers who are caring for children in these moments.

We know that God is on the side of the losers, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the broken hearted, and the forgotten. He is El Roi - the God who sees those in need. And He finds them.

He will give you the strength to do the hard thing you are being asked to do.

I wish I could say that His provision will feel like a feast, and it might, but most often it will look like manna in the wilderness - enough for every day, unpredictable and unknown to us how it will happen. But it will happen and there will be enough to be satisfied. Every day He will see you and find you and He will help you like He helped Hagar.

This time might mean that you have to let certain standards go - standards for yourself, standards for the state of your home, or expectations of what you will be able to achieve. But in letting go, you will learn new levels of grace for yourself, grace that God has for you because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

You will learn to be a human who is dependent on God, exactly how God created you to be.

And it is His delight to care for His children who know they need Him.

May you, in this strange new normal, know God more dearly and may you know His angels attending to you in your circumstances. May you know the comfort and peace of being Found by the living El Roi.