She's not a victim

Recently I read the story of Hagar with a group of Pakistani women. I (and lectio 365) read this story as an innocent girl caught up in unfortunate circumstances that have her running away from home, desperate and alone. My Pakistani friends pointed out to me that Hagar despised Sarai. To them, this seemed a common occurrence–a second wife gets pregnant and thinks she’s better than the first. She might even run away to try to garner more attention from the husband. They did not view her as a victim of her circumstances.

The Woman Who Named God

The story of Hagar is quite extraordinary. Near a spring in the middle of two towns, the every mysterious Angel of the Lord comes to her. What did he look like, sound like? He doesn’t tell her, as most angels do, to not be afraid, so does he just look like a normal guy? If I was pregnant and alone in the middle of nowhere I’d be afraid of a random guy. Does he approach her as a woman, and then she mysteriously realizes God has come to her in some form? In the end, she is the first person recorded in the Bible to give God a name–He is the God who sees.

Creating Simply to Create

Last week was quite a stressful week for me. A friend of mine was in crisis and it triggered a lot of things for me, while I was also trying to not make it about me. I needed some sort of outlet, so I decided to do some painting. And collaging. On a big piece of paper. I painted/collaged/oil pasteled an orange tree, simply because I like orange trees. I like the orange and green contrast. It was helpful for my mind, body, and spirit to simply do something I wanted, something without deep meaning. I’d like to try that more often.

The beginning of the process