Her son was dying from thirst. They had wandered far in the desert with meager food and water that had been tossed to her by her former lover with scorn. Her lover didn’t want her anymore nor did he want their child. This must have broken her heart or maybe it had been broken long, long before by the open animosity of her lover’s other woman.
The woman was very hostile to her and her child.
She was thirsty as well. She waited to die. She hoped she would die before her son did but it did not happen that way.
When his young body gave way from the heat of the blazing sun, she did her best to shade him by dragging and carrying his body to a bush. It did not provide much shade or relief but it was all she had.
She wandered then, not far from him but in desperation seeking food or water or anything that could help. Hopeless, defeated and close to death herself, she must have given up eventually and returned to him and watched over him. She must have waited for the end. She must have cried or cried out in frustration at some point or perhaps she just waited in futility and utter despair.
An angel of mercy came to her then. Told her to return to the place she had been thrown out of….thrown out not once, but twice. He told her to go back to the place where she was abused.
After she was kicked out again, a fountain of water sprung up in the desert. Her son survived. So did she.
His name was Ishmael. He became the father of Islam with numerous untold descendants too many to count.
Her name was Hagar, the handmaid, and this was the original handmaid’s tale.
His mother and brother conspired against him. They plotted together and stole his birthright. His mother never seemed to like him the way she loved his brother. He wondered if it was his appearance. Perhaps she thought he was ugly and that deterred her from giving him the love he desired.
His father allowed his birthright to be taken. His father was weak and did what the others wanted to keep the peace. He betrayed his son too. The son parted ways with his family and all those that raised him.
He founded Petra in the desert.
He became the father of antiquity, supposedly his line of descendants would dominate the Mediterranean as Greeks and Romans.
And yet, his mother never truly loved him. How could she do the things she had done to Esau?
How could it be written of a God that loved all ………”Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated.”
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