a girl named runaway - Genesis 16

We meet her in Genesis chapter 16, her name means "to run away." She's been caught up in a bad situation. Others have used her - it was normal and acceptable in the culture of that time, but as we read the story we just know it was wrong, and her story could not end well. When she gets a little proud she's slapped down, reminded that she's just ... Living up to her name, Hagar runs away. No where to go, kinda like that Journey song, "just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world; she took the midnight train goin' anywhere..."

She's lost and confused, without hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2). Now, God meets her there. Maybe she called out in desperation, like you and I have, because God shows Himself to her there as "the God who sees" and "the God who hears (answers)." The baby she's carrying, Ishmael, will be named "God hears." God's meets her not with condemnation and judging, but with hope. If she will only believe God, trust Him. The situation is bad, but God redeems broken people and broken lives, that's who He is. He redeemed me from loneliness to life, real life, abundant life. What about you?

God Pursues

Genesis 3 shows God pursuing. Man has wondered away, he's lost, and God goes after him. God knows where man is hiding, but he invites, rather than commands. Drawing him back, drawing him out he calls out, "Adam, where are you?"
Adam had walked with God, had relationship with God. He had wanted that relationship with God, but along the way he allowed himself to want something else more. That's the way it is with me. I know I should say "no," yet I convince myself its harmless enough just this once. But now closeness to God is lost, and despairing in my failure I want to withdraw--hide, from God and others. It's not that I didn't want God, but that I wanted something else more.
Still, today, God pursues. Still today God is calling to those He made to have relationship with Him, "Where are you?"

Blessed be Your name

Though we don't normally consider as such, the end of the book of Job is one of the better known theophanies or personal encounters with the Living God. We know Job's story because it speaks to the pain and sorrow and trouble of life. We identify with Job in his search for answers, and his complaint against God.
Job asks:
"Why has this happened?"
"What have I done?"
"Where are you God?
"How can you do this to me?"
"When will my suffering end?"

God answers "Who." He reminds us who Job's God is. The tension remains in the story because God never explains himself to Job, instead he explains Himself.

I don't mean to suggest offering pious platitudes about God in the midst of the real hardship and suffering that comes in life. We don't always get the answers we seek, and the ones we supply don't satisfy. Maybe God is redirecting from that age-old question "God, why have you...?" to "God, who are you?" In the midst of the trivia and trouble of life, something inside us cries out with Moses, "Lord, show me your glory!"

Behold your God--personal encounters with the Living God

For the next two months we'll be looking at different times when God shows himself. Theologians call it a theophany; it often happens at times of "narrative tension", when the story doesn't make sense, there are more questions then answers. Then, God steps into the story, shows himself, and if we notice, creates even more questions.

Maybe your in a time of "narrative tension." Maybe right now your story doesn't make sense. Maybe this is just the time when God will show himself to you in a new, unexpected way.