Is God Really Tender?. Hagar probably wondered the same thing. The book of Genesis in the Bible describes the story of Hagar, a servant in Abraham’s household. She was a single mother who was betrayed and then banished into the desert.

Imagine how hopeless Hagar must have felt as she and her son were sent away from their home, with food and water strapped to her shoulders to last how long? The desert stretched endlessly as she wandered with her son, carefully rationing her provisions until, finally, the food and water were gone. With no other options, she laid her starving child under a bush and collapsed at a distance to avoid seeing him die. They both began to cry. In the parched wasteland, erased of human comfort, two frail voices rose up from the desert, perhaps the only sounds.


Hope in a painful world

Do you identify with Hagar? Maybe you can taste her bitterness when you think about being rejected by your child’s other parent or her sadness when you can’t provide for your children like you want to. Perhaps you feel her despair and her loneliness when you wake up in the morning faced with living that day without anyone to help you.

Perhaps you want to believe God loves you, but you can’t understand why a loving God would allow pain and suffering in your life. If He cared about you, wouldn’t He do something about it? The answer is, YES.

God heard Hagar’s son crying and called to Hagar from heaven, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand.”

Hagar was truly in a hopeless situation. Only God could rescue her, and He did. God opened Hagar’s eyes to a nearby pool of water. Her vision blurred by tears, she must have thought it a mirage at first—but it wasn’t.

Male Participant


God’s original creation in the Garden of Eden was perfect and sinless. Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with their Creator until they disobeyed Him. As a result, their descendants are all born with built-in resistance to God and His ways. This is the reason we choose to disobey God. And it’s that same disobedience that cuts us off from God and from experiencing His comfort and help. But as the story of Hagar illustrates, God is a tenderhearted Father. He did do something about sin; He sacrificed His only Son, Jesus Christ, to provide us a way out of the desert. According to John 3:16, whoever believes in Jesus has everlasting life—a life without tears or “death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). While you are in this imperfect world, you have the hope that someday injustice, pain, divorce, death, betrayal and suffering will end.

Rest for your soul

The same God who heard Hagar and her son hears your cries today. He knows the cries of your heart that are too deep for expression: the tears you’ve cried for your children, for yourself. And He hears the cries of your children, too. He says to you from Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” He wants you to have abiding rest now in His Son Jesus Christ, even amidst the busyness and chaos of your daily life. How is this possible?

God Bless You.

#GabrielOnyema