As they trudged along, Ishmael remembered something. His mother had told him that, many years before, when she was pregnant with him, Sara had treated her so badly that she had run away into this same desert. She told him that Avraham's God had sent an angel to tell her to go back. He told her to name her child Ishmael, and that he would have many descendants. Maybe she wasn't scared to go into the desert again because she hoped the angel would come once more.
Well, the angel had not come.
Ishmael writhed on the hot ground. His eyes were now so swollen that he could no longer see even the shape of the small bush next to his head.
His father's God! WHERE was his father's God now? What kind of God was He to tell a man to chase away a mother and her son, his own son, into this wilderness of death?
He groaned.
The blackness of death slowly began to darken his mind. He felt himself falling and falling, endlessly. He was terrified. His heart raced with fear. He tried to scream. No sound came from his mouth. But the scream for help tore from his soul and into the ears of the God Who was watching over him.
Hagar saw a blinding light and out of the light a voice spoke, a voice she remembered, a voice that sounded like cascading music. She fell forward, her face on her arms. "Hagar! Why are you weeping? Don't be afraid. God has heard the boy's cry of distress. Go and take him up in your arms. I am going to make a great nation from him."
The voice stopped and there was silence. Hagar slowly lifted her head from her arms and rubbed her eyes. The light had gone, but she saw what she had not seen before- a little spring of water welling up from the ground a few steps away. She scrambled to her feet, filled the waterskins, splashing the clear, sparkling water over her feet, laughing and crying. Then she knelt next to Ishmael, tenderly lifted his head onto her lap and gently dripped the water over his lips and into his mouth. He sputtered, wanting to drink more.
"Slowly, slowly, my son." She smoothed back the black hair from his forehead and bathed his painful eyelids with the refreshing water.
By the next morning he was able to get to his feet. Supported by Hagar's strong arm, he limped beside her as they continued their walk, carrying the now filled waterskins.
Within another day they would arrive at an oasis and meet up with a family of desert dwellers. Hagar and Ishmael were invited to settle among them.
Ishmael grew strong and became a renowned archer. Later he married an Egyptian girl chosen for him by his mother. When Hagar's first grandchild was put into her arms, she remembered the promise given to her by the angel of the LORD God: "I am going to make a great nation from him."
And from a grateful heart, Hagar said a quiet "Thank You."
As they trudged along, Ishmael remembered something. His mother had told him that, many years before, when she was pregnant with him, Sara had treated her so badly that she had run away into this same desert. She told him that Avraham's God had sent an angel to tell her to go back. He told her to name her child Ishmael, and that he would have many descendants. Maybe she wasn't scared to go into the desert again because she hoped the angel would come once more.