Genesis 16:13: Hagar gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
Genesis 21:17-20: God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer.
While rereading Sisters in the Wilderness by Delores S. Williams, the book on Hagar, I was inspired to create a piece uniting Hagar & Ishmael encountering the water-giving God in the wilderness with Christ multiplying the loaves & fishes in the wilderness. The fish and water bring life in the desert, evidence of God’s watchful eye. This vintage chalkware mother and child in the center is both Hagar with Ishmael and Mary with Jesus, the latter being the bread in the loaves & fishes story. I wanted to intertwine both of these stories together to Illustrate their similarities in ways I’ve never seen elsewhere.
