…Now Sarai Abram’s wife bore him no children; and she had a handmaid an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram: ‘Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; go in I pray thee, unto my handmaid; it may be that I shall be builded up through her.’ And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarai…
Genesis 16:1-2
Series: WOMEN IN THE BIBLE: THE HEROINES AND THE HARASSED
Title: Hagar
Size: 1.50m x 1.30m (59in x 51in)
I am inspired by Hagar’s story. There is much to honor and celebrate—primarily her courage and her commitment to the survival of her child against enormous odds.
Further, Hagar heads a list of firsts in the Bible. She is the first person in the Bible to flee oppression, the first runaway slave, the first person whom a messenger of God visits, the only woman to receive a divine promise of descendants, the only person to name God, the first woman in the ancestor stories to bear a child, the first surrogate mother, the first slave to be freed, the first divorced wife, the first single parent, and the first person to weep. This host of distinctions underscores Hagar’s pivotal role in the Biblical narrative.
Hagar’s story is a reminder of the ways in which ethnic and economic power continues to divide and alienate women from one another, even today.
Significantly, the story is central to each of the three Abrahamic faiths, with each laying claim to the promise to Abraham of God’s special blessing. As children of Sarah and Hagar, we have all inherited their conflict. In creating this tapestry, full of the earth tones reminiscent of the desert, I am hopeful that Hagar’s unique place in the Biblical narrative will provide the common thread necessary for us to find “the courage and faith we need to share God’s peace and justice together as one human family.”
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