breakfast and deserts

Have you ever had those days when breakfast becomes being lost in the desert?

My usual morning routine is to wake up to the sound on my daughters voice saying, "It's morning daddy, get up." This is followed by the usual rituals of getting her breakfast, making her a lunch for preschool, and getting a shower. Depending on the state of awake-ness these things happen slower or faster given the day. So sometimes I even have time to wonder about breakfast. This usually consists of trying to figure out if I have the wits to actually get some cereal into a bowl. I have already done this for my daughter, but sometimes it is beyond my ability to do it for myself. Sometimes it blows-up into huge proportions of life changing decisions and other times I just give up and go without breakfast all together.

In Gen 21 we have great joy and great sadness. Isaac is born and there is laughter through out the camp and joy on every side. Except for Hagar. Sarah is now ready to toss this slave woman and her son out of the camp. Here is the strange thing. God actually tells Abraham to follows Sarah's complaint. So Abraham packs Hagar up and sends her off into the desert.

When the water runs out, Hagar finds herself at the point of giving up. She places the baby under a bush and walks an arrow shot away because she can't bear to watch her baby die. But God comes to her and says I hear the baby crying go and pick him up, I will take care of you. She goes and picks him up and the bible says that her eyes are opened and she sees the spring of water right there next to her.

Why couldn't she see this before? How were her eyes closed to this thing? Did God close her eyes so that she would have to learn dependence on him? I don't think so, because scripture usually strait up tells us when God does something like that. I think it is more likely her own despair closed her eyes to any possibility of hope. She was stuck dying in the desert because of her own mindset.

I think this truth carries over to us as well. We find ourselves stuck in our own despair, our own indecision, and own mindset and we are unable to move. I would like you to notice in this story it is not her sheer will that opens her eyes. She can not come out of this alone. She needs the voice of God, to come out of it. She needs God to be able to once again pick up her baby. Her eyes are opened in response to God.

I believe that God is still able to open our eyes to the provision that he has for us. If we respond to the call that he places on our lives, he will open our eyes to the possibilities. Its hard to see it in the midst of the darkness of indecision, but some how it is there. Whether it is choosing to have breakfast or finding a drink of water so that you and your child, so that I and my child can live.

This may come in the form of a new job, a house finally selling, knowing how to feed your family, knowing whether or not to serve in certain position in your church, what medications may be the most helpful for you, or hundreds of other things depending on your situation. I believe, God has something in mind for us if we respond to him and open our eyes.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened.