Seven Years of Divine Providence

Seven years ago today, I sat on the top step of my new home in Long Beach, Mississippi, holding an air mattress and watching  the storm surge climb up the stairs.  With my heart beating out of my chest, I prayed to have a heart attack if I had to die.  I did not want to float out of that house on an air mattress, especially during the height of the storm.  It was only 10:00 a.m.  The snakes and raccoons were prowling around looking for high ground, and my stairs seemed to be the best refuge at the moment.  A tornado had ripped the front door right out of its frame, so I had no protection against anything that might want to enter the house. 

With no tv or radio or telephone in the new house, I had spent the previous day reading Genesis: Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poety by David Cotter.  I had just reached the section about Hagar, Abraham and Sarah's Egyptian slave girl who had to leave the household because of irreconcilable conflicts with  Sarah. In the Book of Exodus, God had expressly forbidden the Israelites again and again to mistreat a resident alien:

You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alient, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.  You shall not abuse any widow or orphan.  If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry (22:21-23).

It is clear from the story that Sarah is "afflicting" Hagar, the same word used for the condition of the Israelites in Egypt.  Abraham is as passive in the circumstance as was Adam in the Garden of Eden.  He does whatever Sarah wants him to do. And God does what He said He would do -- He heard Hagar's cry, just as He had heard the cry of the Israelites in slavery!  It is interesting to note that He communicates with Hagar, the slave-girl, but not with Sarah, the "main character." 

Anyway, once the Angel of the Lord directs Hagar to return to Abraham and Sarah, she "called the name of Yahweh who spoke with her: 'You are a God of seeing'."  The simplest meaning of the name Hagar gives to God is "God Who Sees Me."  The commentary on this passage notes that up to this moment, it seems that no one has ever seen her.  Later, after Ishmael is born and they are both sent into the desert, she names her son Ishmael, meaning "God hears."  He heard her cry for help and directed her to a well.

Since I had been reading Hagar's story, as I sat on the staircase, I prayed, "O Lord, You are the God Who sees me and hears me.  You know where I am today; hear my cry for help!"

What followed that day and the days to come was the most amazing providence of God at every turn.  I cannot tell the whole story here, but I will just say this.  After spending a week in a shelter, I was once again rescued (miraculously, I think) and delievered to Natchez, Mississippi, where I was to meet up with my husband.  As I waited in the formal parlor of the church rectory with 12-foot ceilings, I realized that behind me was a huge painting that had been donated to the church by the king of France in the early 1800's.  I got up to look at the painting and realized that it was a portrayal of Hagar in the desert with her son; the angel of the Lord was pointing to a hidden well.  How many pictures of Hagar exist in the western world?  (I'm sure there are many in the Middle East.)  I have never before or after seen a painting of Hagar, but I was sitting beneath an 8-10 foot painting now!

My "Katrina Story" is the story of Divine Providence, of the God-Who-Sees-and Hears.  Seven years after that moment, today, I sit in practically the same spot that I said that prayer, and today, I celebrate and rejoice at the goodness of God, who brought me safely out of that dangerous situation and provided for my every need.  Seven years of Divine Providence -- and many more before that!  Alleluia!