We live in a
world of connections, wherein we can so easily be in touch with anyone whom we
have ever met. Yet we still pass many people by, content to stay mutual
strangers. Despite our vast repositories of information and contacts, it is
likely that you do not know what happened to the sister of the young man that
your cousin dated in high school. You probably do not know the story of the mother
of the man whom your parent did not marry. The saga of the third cousin of the
neighbour who moved away ten years ago is lost to you and to yours.
Yet, we cannot
know everything. We cannot know everyone. We can, however, remember that their
stories, even unknown, touch up against our own through God. Christians think
frequently about how God is shaping us, about God’s promises to those in our faith
community and to us, about God’s work in what is our known world. What about
God’s work that goes on, unknown to us? The passage of scripture from Genesis
21 this week opens these questions up for us.
Did Isaac ever
wonder what happened to the dark-eyed teenager he remembered so faintly from
his childhood? Did Ishmael ever speak of his half-brother whom he enjoyed
making laugh? Did Abraham tell Isaac of his folly? Did Hagar tell her son of
Abraham and of Sarah and of her broken heart? Did both boys grow up, knowing of
God’s promises to their parents and their role in fulfilling them? And, if they
knew, did they imagine God making the same promise about each of them?
Isaac and
Ishmael are both signs of God’s providence and commitment. In human history,
they represent two significant personal, political, and religious streams whose
currents have significantly shaped the sands and rocks of time. If Isaac had
known that Ishmael was also the start of a great nation, what might he have
done differently? If Ishmael heard of the twin promises, did it soothe the ache
of rejection or fire up his frustrations at his father and at Isaac?
God’s promise
to Hagar is a powerful and significant promise. Offered to a woman in the worst
of circumstances, watching her child die, it is not a hurried consolation
prize, but a powerful offer of hope and future. While Ishmael may have been
second place in some households, in the eyes of his creator, he still mattered,
as the offspring of Abraham and as the offspring of Hagar.
All of
creation, including all people, receives this promise of hope and a future. Even
those of the Middle East, Russia or in the USA receive this promise. God
considers each person worthy of shaping, of wholeness, and of salvation. We are
called into seeing that worthiness in one another. Furthermore, we are called
into working together toward the fulfillment of those promises. Now that is
quite a challenge, as it is hard to see that people in Terrorist organisations are
worthy in God’s eyes let alone ours. Something to ponder.
We do not
always know the stories of the people around us, but we can know the promises
that have been made to them. God is with them. We cannot pretend their stories
do not matter. When I sit at the bedside of someone facing hard times, when I
talk to someone in the street or pass the beggar or homeless person I do not
know their story. Yet, hard as it is, we are called by our God to recognise
each person is worthwhile, each person has a story, each person’s story is important
and each person is loved by our God.
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