The Saturday was normal just like any other. However, it was messy from stormy weather and heavy rains. I was visiting with family back in Alabama, and was standing outside by the door to my mother’s home awaiting entrance, when my eyes glimpsed tall yellow flowers in the middle of a watery yard. I had never noticed such flowers in my mother’s lawn prior to this day. Yet amidst a soggy yard, there they stood tall and lovely in the core of a wet and dreary day.
As I continued glaring at the beautiful flowers, a great truth tugged at my heart. If we will just take the time to notice, God brings beauty out of seemingly messy places. While we may find ourselves focusing on what appears to be a scrappy and hopeless situation, God is opening a flower bud of miracles and blessings, ordained before the beginning of time.
Hagar had been cast out of her home from a family she had loved and served. She was rejected and mistreated, while bearing a wound that bore great anguish. For a time, a desert became the new dwelling place for Hagar and her son. She felt alone, scared, and uncertain of a future. Due to the scarcity of water, Hagar thought certainly she and her son would die. For all she could see was desert and desolation. Yet, unbeknownst to Hagar, God had a plan.
“Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, ‘Do not let me see the boy die.’ And she sat opposite him and lifted up her voice and wept. God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink (Genesis 21:14-19).
God opened the eyes of Hagar to see what she had not seen before. A well of water. For what appeared to be the end of the road from a distraught woman’s point of view, was actually a new beginning from God’s viewpoint. Hagar had sat down, as if to put a period on the end of her life. Yet, God was calling her to ascend. In verse 18, God stated, “Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him” (v. 18).
God was calling Hagar to arise, to take hold of her child, and to move forward according to the promise He had given to her. You see the chapter in which Hagar found herself was not the last stage of her story. Instead, aligned with a new beginning, a new chapter emerged. For in Hagar’s life, yellow flowers were blooming even though her eyes were not open to see them at the time.
What scene currently is holding your attention? Are you standing in a messy and sluggish place? Are you in a desert of desolation and hopelessness? Arise, look up, and take God by the hand. For He is not finished with you, and He is not finished with your future. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to see what you may not currently be seeing. Ask Him to let you see those yellow flowers of blessings!
