When Moms Feel UnseenSample

Step 5: God invites us to be agents of shalom.

Shalom is God’s vision of harmony, wholeness, and peace for all creation. In God’s shalom, all is good and right within and between God’s people and God’s creation, and everyone has what they need to flourish.

When Jesus announces that the kingdom of God is at hand, he ushers in a new reign of shalom, in which he restores every part of creation, including us. The first four steps of spiritual transformation are all about our restoration. In the fifth step, having showered us with so much shalom, God invites us to pour that shalom into a world thirsty for good news.

After Hagar experiences shalom with God, she then becomes an agent of shalom for others, specifically the family that has treated her so badly. Through Hagar’s witness, they learn that their God is a God who sees and hears. We know they believed her because Abram named their son Ishmael, the name God told Hagar. And the family, recognizing the importance of Hagar’s encounter at the well, calls it Beer Lahai Roi, which means “well of the Living One who sees me,” for centuries to come.

The greatest beneficiary of Hagar’s shalom-bearing, though, is her son, Ishmael. Because Hagar says yes to God’s invitations, Ishmael grows up receiving love from both his earthly father, Abraham, and his heavenly father, God. As a free man, Ishmael experiences the fulfillment of the angel’s promise to Hagar in Genesis 16.

We may struggle to believe we can be part of God’s restoration of the world. We can scarcely get through an afternoon without exploding diapers, homework meltdowns, or moments hiding in the laundry room with a secret stash of last year’s Halloween candy. Yet, each of us is invited to taste God's goodness and share that goodness with our families and neighbors.

That may look like apologizing to our teen for losing our temper or seeking therapy so we don’t transmit our pain to others. It may also involve reminding a friend whose infant cries all the time that you think she is doing a great job and praying that she would hear the same from God.

When we, like Hagar, go to the well of the Living One who sees us, we, too, can become imperfect agents of shalom in an imperfect world thirsty for harmony, wholeness, and peace.

Prayer:

God, help me see all I have to offer, even when I feel inadequate. Help me be an agent of shalom in a world thirsty for harmony, wholeness, and peace. Amen.