Luigi Alois Gillarduzzi Hagar und Ismael in der Wüste 1851

They were homeless refugees.

They were hungry and rejected.

God allowed it to happen, but then, God intervened and embraced them.

God heard the prayer of a little boy and the cry of his mother.

He provided.

God loves Hagar and Ishmael.

No one is excluded from the love of God.

from Genesis 21:1-21

"… Then she [Hagar] went and sat down opposite him [Ishmael] a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child."

And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is."

"Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him."

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Do I Matter?

You may be asking that whenever you hear me or others say something like "Black lives matter" with passion, conviction, and tears.

Of course you matter.

You matter to God.

You matter to me.

Yes, I can affirm that all lives matter, but the God who sees us as He saw Hagar and Ishmael tends to be both specific and general in His declarations of love.

You matter ..

Your life, your pain, your history, your dreams.

You.

Indigenous lives matter.

"White" lives matter.

Lonely lives matter.

Broken lives matter.

Criminal lives matter.

Police lives matter.

John's life matters as do the lives of Mary, Sal, Jim, and . Letisha.

I missed many.

But God misses none.

He calls them out in groups and individually as needed and whenever there is a loss of balance or need of emphasis or any hint that those lives might not matter as much as others.

If you cannot single someone out who has been singled out for exclusion, the word "all" does not mean much.

And, when that happens, someone, somewhere is going to feel insecure, forgotten, or marginalized.

God has not forgotten you.

God loves you.

I love you.

I have some very strong views and plan to express them in ways that may seem very opinionated. I filter them through a long and devoted commitment to hearing the voice of God in scripture while reading the past and the present.

It does not make me always right, but it tends to make me feel I am more right than wrong about some things … My perspective.

But that does not mean I can build a curtain around myself, my views, and those who share them, excluding all others and saying, "only our lives, perspectives, and words matter."

You matter.

I just wanted to say that today, because I have been struggling with it, leaning into the pain of the moment, how I sense God speaking, calling, and inviting in the moment.

I do not want to live deeply troubled over the fact that I strongly disagree with someone or they with me. Nor do I want to be intimidated by that or obligated to defend every point or convince every person in order for me or they to be ok.

Our capacity to be OK comes from God.

Jesus spoke in capital letters when he emphasized that love for God and neighbor sum up all the law and prophets.

That has never been repealed and …

… you matter.