“Why did the angel of the Lord ask Hagar a question He already knew the answer to?” she asked.
I was sitting in a workshop on healing from wounds caused by trauma. The presenter was sharing a devotional focused on Hagar’s story, told in Genesis 16.
“He wanted Hagar to name the pain,” she told us. “In naming the pain, healing can start to take place.”
God already knew why Hagar was running from Sarai, and yet He asked her, “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” (Genesis 16:8 NIV). Hagar replied that she was running away. The angel of the Lord told her to return, but not before giving her a promise that she would give birth to a son. “You shall name him Ishmael,” the Angel of the Lord said, “for the LORD has heard of your misery” (Genesis 16:11 NIV).
Hagar did not return to an easy life, but she cried out in her misery, named her pain, and the Lord heard her cries. So often the first step to healing is simply to say, “This hurts,” “The way I was treated was wrong,” or “Father, see this injustice that is happening to me.”
Name the pain and crack open the door to healing.
The presenter’s words carried so much weight because she wasn’t simply speaking from head knowledge but was daily living out the words she was sharing with us. One of her daughters had passed away suddenly from an illness when she was a young adult. She and her husband dedicated their lives to serving in Bible translation work, but they were not immune to their own traumas. Now her husband has early-onset Alzheimer’s, and much of her time is spent caring for him.
Despite those very heavy circumstances, she is one of the most encouraging, joyful people I have ever met—not because she ignores or downplays the pain she has gone through, but because she acknowledges it, names it, and takes time to heal. “Let the painful things you go through be a stepping stone to take you higher,” she told us. “Don’t allow unnamed pain to crush your soul.”
What pain might God be encouraging you to name today on the journey towards healing?
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