Hagar in poetry and paintings

Slave, servant

At the mercy of power

Hand maid, victim

Required to cower

Abused then rejected

She retaliated

Pregnant and ejected

Invalidated

Abandoned by Sarah

Yet, faithful in despair

Seen, she named God

Trusted in prayer

Returned to Abram

Bore him a son

Mother of Ishmael

No more on the run

Humiliated, celebrated

Role inversion

Position precarious

Future uncertain

Sarah bore Isaac

Hagar rejected

Into the wilderness

With Ishmael ejected

Starving, dehydrated

At the edge of death

God led them to water

To regain their strength

Though living in exile

Down the generations

As God had promised

Ishmael birthed a nation

Hagar's not a sideline

She's a valuable story

Of healing from horror

In God's loving glory

...

Hagar's story speaks to me about all of those in society who are sidelined, marginalised, ignored, abused. These are the people Jesus told us to love and nurture.