Worship in the Park - Seeing What Hagar Saw

We loved gathering at Victor Ashe Park for worship and a picnic together last Sunday! During the service, children and adults helped create colorful chalk messages on the sidewalks, sharing simple reminders of God's love and welcome with everyone who passed through the park. After worship, everyone enjoyed a picnic lunch, fellowship, and plenty of desserts, which disappeared quickly! It was a wonderful morning of worship, community, and time spent together in the park.

Amid the joy of the day, one message from Andy Morgan's sermon stood out.

Preaching from Genesis 21:8-21, Andy reflected on one of Scripture's most difficult stories. Cast out into the wilderness with her son Ishmael and running out of water, Hagar reaches a moment of deep despair. Yet in the middle of fear and uncertainty, she sees something others do not. While others reduce Ishmael to labels and categories, Hagar sees her "yeled," her child, her baby, someone cherished, vulnerable, and worthy of care. Through Hagar's eyes, Andy invited us to remember a simple but challenging truth: we are all God's babies.

Long after worship ended, that truth remained. It's one thing to say people deserve respect, even those we disagree with. It's another thing entirely to see them as God's beloved child. What would change if we looked at the people who make us angry, confuse us, or challenge us and remembered that they, too, are deeply loved by God? And what would change if we believed that about ourselves? In a world quick to label, judge, and divide, maybe one of the most important truths of our faith is also one of the simplest: every person we encounter is a child known and loved by God, and so are we.