When you first notice, you can't help but see it more. There's a painful truth of life that the people with the least power often suffer the most from decisions they never made.
Remember what happens in Genesis 16.
For years, Sarai had endured the cultural shame of barrenness. All the while, she was holding on to a promise that seemed way overdue. Out of her despair, she made a decision that changed another woman's life forever. Sarai gave Hagar, her Egyptian slave, to Abram as a way to make God's promise come to be.
Of course, Hagar is never asked to be part of this scheme. You can only imagine what that conversation must've been like.
The plan is not hers. The shame is not hers. And when the plan actually works, the resentment is not hers either. As everything begins to unravel, Hagar bears the consequences of someone else's ideas. Sarai's contempt is directed at the one with the least power.
From Genesis to today's headlines, the poor often carry the consequences of economic decisions made by others. Workers bear the costs of corporate failures. Children inherit broken family dynamics they did not create. Entire communities live with the effects of choices made in boardrooms, legislative sessions, and centers of power far away from themselves.
This Genesis story invites us to pay attention to the person standing and living on the margins. It's the one whose voice is rarely heard and whose pain and suffering are easily overlooked. Some people's humanity is often treated as secondary to others' goals and ambitions.
It's easy to focus on Abram and Sarai because they stand at the center of the story. God, though, turns our attention toward the women standing outside. God has a way of noticing the people everyone else forgets. That's a word for us who claim to have faith in that God.
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Stay blessed...john
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