A Prayer about the Questions Jesus Asks

Where have you come from, and where are you going? Genesis 16:8

Pursuing God

Thank you for chasing after us when we try to run away.

Like Hagar in the wilderness,

we can run ourselves into the ground,

but you seek us,

and you draw us out of our hiding,

asking questions we really need to hear:

Where have you come from?

Where are you going?

Or, as you asked Adam and Eve

when they “hid” from you after eating the fruit,

Where are you?

You don’t ask these questions

because you don’t know the answers.

You don’t ask these questions

because you want to trap us.

You ask them

to invite us to see where we are,

to see where we’ve been,

to see where we’re headed without you.

But you also ask them

to reveal the most important thing

we need to know—

where you are (right here with us),

and who you are:

“The God Who Hears,

The God Who Sees,”

the God who looks after us (Genesis 16:13).

May we listen to your questions,

letting them draw us

to your loving and forgiving presence.

In the name of our Savior,

Immanuel (“God-with-us”), we pray. Amen.

Read Genesis 16:1-16.