R.P. Nettelhorst's Blog, page 86

Can He Forget You?

Shout for joy, O heavens;

rejoice, O earth;

burst into song, O mountains!

For the LORD comforts his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me,

the Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget,

I will not forget you!

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are ever before me.

Your sons hasten back,

and those who laid you waste depart from you.

Lift up your eyes and look around;

all your sons gather and come to you.


As surely as I live,” declares the LORD,

“you will wear them all as ornaments;

you will put them on, like a bride. (Isaiah 49:13-18)

In the midst of our problems, in the dankness of our dungeon, it is impossible to see anything bright. We feel nothing but our pain, we see nothing but the oppressive darkness, we feel nothing but the walls closing in on us. The heaven’s are brass, we’re alone and nothing is getting better. There is no warmth, only the bitter cold of the moment.

In that impossible instant of Israel’s pending destruction, God reassured his people that he had not forgotten them. He compared his suffering people to an infant in its mother’s arms. The infant might be crying, wailing, hungry, fearful. In its small, undeveloped mind, all it knows is the pain of its empty belly, the dark night surrounding it. But its mother can hardly forget her child, can hardly not feel compassion for its suffering. Likewise, God was there, offering comfort and hope as they left for exile in Assyria or Babylonia.

God had not gone away, his people were no further away from him in a foreign land than they had ever been. God was not insensitive to their pain, he had not forgotten them. In fact, all they had to do was calm down, look around, and realize that everything was going to be okay. What was lost was being restored. The broken places were being repaired. It really would all be okay.

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Soviet Lunar Aspirations

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped upon the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, the Soviet attempt at winning the space race was over. They soon claimed that there had been no the race, they had not been interested in getting to the moon first, and in fact didn’t think there was much reason to be flying human beings there. At the time, it sounded like sour grapes. And of course, it was.

In reality, the Soviet Union had been working desperately to get to the moon ahead of the Americans. And they had a brilliant man in charge of their space program from its beginning: Sergey Korolyov.

Born on January 12, 1907, Sergei Pavolovich Korolev was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer. He was unmatched in his ability to organize, integrate designs and to plan strategically. He ran the Soviet space program and oversaw the early success of the first satellite into orbit, first man into space, and first spacewalk. He was referred to only as “Chief Designer” at the time, since both his name and his irreplaceable role in the Soviet space program were a state secret. It wouldn’t be until after his death that his importance to the Soviet space program would be revealed.

Sadly, and disastrously for the Soviet space effort, Korolyov died in January 1966 following a routine operation. He was only 59. The projects begun by Korolyov continued, but they were shepherded by people who had neither his abilities nor competence.

Five years before his death in 1961, Korolyov had begun development of the Soviet moon rocket, N-1. Slightly smaller than the Saturn V that took Americans to the moon, it was also less powerful. It could only put 165,000 pounds into low earth orbit in contrast to the Saturn V’s 262,000 pounds. Had the Soviet’s N-1 worked, it would have taken only two people into lunar orbit instead of three, and only one would have actually landed on the lunar surface. The capsule to be launched by the N-1 was the Soyuz: the same spaceship the Russians use now to send astronauts to the International Space Station.

The biggest problem facing the N-1 was its engines. Where the American Saturn V used five powerful F-1 engines on the first stage, the Soviets had nothing comparable. The best they could come up with was the NK-15, less than one-sixth as powerful as the American F-1. That meant that in order to lift their enormous rocket, the Soviets had to install thirty NK-15s in the first stage. That made their rocket incredibly complex: there were just too many things that could go wrong.

Its first test flight was on February 21, 1969. By that time, the American Saturn V was operational. In fact, the Saturn V had already successfully sent three Americans into orbit around the moon during Christmas in 1968. The Soviet moon rocket managed to blast off, but it exploded sixty-nine seconds later. The next three test launches all ended in failure, with one blowing up on the launch pad. It took 18 months to rebuild. While other aspects of the vehicle were being modified or redesigned, the Russian company made modifications to the design of the NK-15. The new engines were called the NK-33 and NK-43. The intent was that the new engines would power a second generation moon rocket to be called the N-1F. But with the Moon race lost, the Soviet government cancelled the program. No N-1F ever reached the launch pad.

When the N-1 moon program was shut down, all the hardware built for the project was ordered destroyed. The intent was to make the whole program disappear, as if it had never happened, in order to match the narrative the Soviet Union wanted to portray: that they had never tried to go to the moon. However, the government’s orders were not completely obeyed. The builder of the NK-33 engines rescued them and hid them in a warehouse.

Three decades passed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, word of the hidden engines leaked to the United States. Altogether, about 150 had survived. So the Russians sold thirty-six of them to the American company Aerojet General for $1.1 million each. Aerojet then modified and renamed the NK-33 and NK-43, calling them the AJ26-58 and AJ26-59, respectively.

Later, the U.S. company Orbital Sciences Corporation decided to use two modified NK-33s in the first stage of their new Antares light-to-medium-lift launcher. Orbital now has a contract with NASA to launch its Antares, bearing their Cygnus cargo ship, to the International Space Station. The first Antares rocket, powered by the Soviet Union’s old moon rocket engines, was launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on April 21, 2013. It was the first time that NK-33s had been used since the final N-1 exploded in 1972. A month later, Orbital lofted their first cargo ship to the International Space Station on September 18, 2013. Aerojet has agreed to recondition sufficient NK-33s to serve Orbital’s eight flight NASA Commercial Resupply Services contract. Beyond that, it has a stockpile of only twenty-three of the modified NK-33s. The Russian company that built the NK-33s stopped building them decades ago, which brings into question the long term viability of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares–unless the Russians start manufacturing them again.

But that’s not quite the end of the story. A new rocket engine, an improved version of the NK-33, is currently in production. It is called the RD-180. Lockheed-Martin chose this engine to power their Atlas V rocket. The original Atlas was an ICBM designed to rain nuclear fire on the cities of the Soviet Union. Today, its descendent is powered by Russian built engines. Just last month, an Atlas V, powered by the offspring of the Soviet Moon rocket’s engines, took an American spy satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

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Death Comes As No Surprise

Now when they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.

Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, “Aaron will be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah.

“Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up to Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there.”

So Moses did just as the LORD had commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

After Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days. (Numbers 20:22-29)

Death comes to us all. One day, the world will go on without us. It will not even give us a moment’s thought, any more than we spare a moment’s thought for our great grandparents whom most of us wouldn’t recognize and whose names we probably don’t even know.

God told Aaron the precise moment and place when he would die. Like a prisoner on death row, God led him to Mount Hor and while everyone watched, his life ended. It was a sad time for Aaron, a sad time for Moses and a sad time for the people of Israel who set aside the traditional month for mourning. It was not a happy time for God, either.

As much as God wants us to be happy, the reality is that there are times when sadness is not only appropriate, but inevitable. Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb, even though he knew that within moments Lazarus would walk out very much alive. God knew that Aaron would not stay dead forever. The resurrection would come. But the promise of resurrection does not make the current moment of pain go away. Face the pain, acknowledge it, and mourn.

Aaron’s death was no surprise, but the Israelites were still sad for a long time. Don’t think you can’t or shouldn’t be sad. And don’t think you have to get over your loss immediately. Take however long you need. But also know, that sooner or later, the time of mourning will come to an end—whether in thirty days or longer—and you’ll go back to living your life.

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Face Shine

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:

“The LORD bless you and keep you;

The LORD make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.” ’

“So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:22-27)

“I’m just blessed all over.” The elderly man in our congregation always responded in the same way whenever anyone asked him how he was doing: whether times were good for him or not so good. How could he do that? Because he knew he was with God and would be with God forever. “Bless” has become a religious word, all too easily spiritualized into an abstract unreality. It’s not as complicated as we’d like to make it. The word translated “to bless” means simply “to make happy.” God told Moses that the priests should tell the people regularly that God was watching over them with the intent of making them happy. A blessing is simply the opposite of a curse: the opposite of misery and unhappiness.

God’s will for people is that they should be happy. When God made the world, he saw that it was good, not evil. God did not set out to make us miserable. The problem of unhappiness comes as a result of how easily we can lose perspective. The old man, who in whatever circumstances, could recognize that he was “blessed all over” knew the simple truth that allowed him to weather the storms of life: he knew that he belonged to God, that God was with him, and that God would remain with him forever. He didn’t let his circumstances hide God.

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Fun

Now, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the festival of the LORD, lasting seven days; a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you shall take the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a festival to the LORD seven days in the year; you shall keep it in the seventh month as a statute forever throughout your generations. You shall live in booths for seven days; all that are citizens in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 23:39-43)

Religion doesn’t have to be boring. The festivals, feasts, worship ceremonies that God gave the Israelites were supposed to be fun for them. Once a year, for a whole week, the entire nation of Israel was supposed to go on a nationwide camp-out. Its purpose was to remind them of their forty years wandering in the wilderness when they had all lived in tents. And they were supposed to have fun doing this. It was a time off. A holiday. On the first and last day of the festival they weren’t supposed to do anything but goof off and be as lazy as possible. The rest of the time, they were supposed to be having a good time. Consider the implications: another whole week every year that God set aside for nothing but fun.

What kind of God is this, that insists that his people enjoy themselves? A God that really does love them. What has gotten into our heads that somehow the best way to get close to God is to isolate ourselves and to deny ourselves the pleasures of life? Instead, God called his people to come together, to go on a big camp-out, to sit around campfires and cook food and spend time with each other in celebration of how much God loved them by rescuing them from Egyptian bondage and protecting and caring for them over forty years of wandering in the desert. God did not intend that it be difficult to know that he loves us. Worshiping God is not supposed to be just hard discipline.

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Progress

I first visited Disneyland around 1971. My father, then in the Air Force, was back from his second tour of duty in Viet-Nam and got stationed at a small town in Nevada called Fallon, about sixty miles east of Reno. That first summer back in America, he decided to take us all to Disneyland.

One of my fondest memories of that trip was a large, rotating building called the “Carousel of Progress.” We sat in an auditorium while the building swung from one stage to the next, presenting a “typical” living room at various stages in American history, from pioneer days to the present. It was sponsored by General Electric, so I suppose it was also an advertisement of sorts for that corporation’s products.

Nevertheless, it was entertaining. Each of four living rooms was populated with animatronic people and animals who talked about their lives during their particular era. As we rotated from living room to living room, we got to witness progress.

The idea of progress used to be at the forefront of America’s thoughts. But today, it’s a concept that rarely enters our heads. Many have lost faith in it. Many don’t believe in it at all. Many think it’s just an illusion.

Instead, our leaders and pundits focus only on our problems. Some speak as if our best days were in the past, with only endless decline before us. Those things that we had thought were beneficial, we are now assured are actually delusions devastating the world and our futures. Our attempts at progress, some say, have cheapened and degraded our lives: all our gadgets and processed foods, chemicals and carbon spewing have destroyed paradise.

Despite the Malthusian malcontents, Disney’s carousel reminds us that progress is real. The past really wasn’t better than the present. We are not making our world worse. Our children’s future is not dim.

It is hard to argue that living in a dark and dirty hovel, or traipsing to a smelly outhouse in the middle of a cold winter’s night, is somehow preferable to our modern homes with bathrooms. Or that bathing in a basin in the kitchen is better than a hot shower. Or that cutting wood, hauling it into the kitchen, stuffing it into the stove, and then struggling to light it is somehow better than flipping a knob on our gas or electric range.

Kings of the eighteenth century did not live as comfortably as today’s average welfare recipient. The mummified remains of ancient pharaohs show many suffering from the abscesses, parasites and disease that today afflict only the most impoverished of third world nations. When an ancient king had to go in the middle of the night, he pulled a pot out from under his bed. Then he had to let it sit there smelling up the joint until his servants arrived in the morning to haul it away.

The state of humanity before the industrial revolution was nasty, brutish, and short—to paraphrase Hobbes. The children of farmers flocked to the cities to work in the factories because life in a dingy city was better than life in a filthy, bug-infested muddy shack with a backbreaking sunup to sundown plowing and harvesting routine. My short stint on a kibbutz in Israel when I was in college disabused me of any and all romantic notions of farm life. Capitalism and industrialization have been good for people.

The Disney Carousel of Progress which told us that the future was going to be better than our present wasn’t dispensing a pretty little lie. Overall progress has been the steady pattern of history. There is no reason to think that the pattern has ended. Despite economic slumps and periodic upheavals, there has been an unending upward trend in human prosperity.

When I was a child, the largest telescope in the world was at Mt. Palomar Observatory. Its mirror is 200 inches across. For more than forty years, from 1949 to 1992 it reigned supreme.

In 2018 the James Webb space telescope, the successor to the Hubble telescope, will rocket into space. Its mirror is more than 250 inches across.

Designed to observe the infrared, it will be able to see further than any telescope in history. Since the universe is expanding, the more distant an object, the more its light shifts toward the red end of the spectrum. As a result, the most distant objects are no longer shining in a visible wavelength. Night vision goggles work because they translate that invisible infrared—what we normally experience only as heat—into something perceivable by eyesight. Webb will do the same thing for distant starlight.

Because of all the heat put off by the Earth, the far infrared regions of space cannot be seen from the surface of our planet. The Earth and the moon glow too bright: trying to see the far infrared from Earth is like trying to see the stars during the day.

For this reason, the new Webb telescope will be sent very far away from our planet. While the current Hubble Space Telescope orbits barely three hundred miles up, Webb will be parked at the Earth-Sun L2 point—more than a million miles away—in fact, about four times further from Earth than the moon.

Besides being able to view far distant parts of the universe, Webb should also be capable of imaging the tiny specks of other worlds—worlds like Earth—circling far distant stars.

Such obvious advances in space technology are simply a tiny subset of the progress being made in all human activities. We need merely to look past our natural pessimism to recognize it. The Carousel of Progress may no longer be an attraction at Disneyland, but the human race is still riding it just the same.

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The New

I am what would be called an “early adopter.” That is, if I can afford it, I tend to quickly embrace new technology. I purchased my first computer in 1980, a Commodore Vic-20. At the time, I was in my graduate program at UCLA, learning ancient Near Eastern Semitic languages, and I immediately recognized the potential help a computer could give me with my studies.

I was using online services by 1983. I started doing my banking online in 1985. When I began teaching at the Master’s College full time in 1986 I was one of but two professors on campus that had a computer in his office. I’ve run a website since 1995. I started blogging before the turn of the century.

I do not fear the new. I find it generally improves my life. I do not understand the reluctance, the fear, the negativity, and the opposition which so many express toward innovation.

Currently I am enamored of electric cars, and with every news story about them that I read on the web, I find people leaving amazingly negative and critical comments that frequently border on—or cross over to—the irrational. The hatred some have for electric vehicles is visceral. And I don’t get it.

My intention, should I ever have money again, is to someday buy a new car to replace my now ten year old automobile. When I do so, I intend to get an electric vehicle. I never want to buy a gas powered car again. And the reason is very simple.

I think an electric car will save me money in the long run.

I know that current electric cars have some issues. At present, their purchase price is usually somewhat higher than that of traditional autos. Also, many of them have limited range per charge, compared to gasoline powered cars.

There is, however, one exception to the limited range issue: the Tesla Model S. Built in Fremont, California in a factory originally owned by General Motors, the five passenger sedan can go 265 miles on a charge—which equals the distance my gasoline powered car can go with a full tank of gas.

More significantly, at least to me, the cost of electricity is considerably lower than the cost of gasoline. Filling up my 18 gallon gas tank to go 265 miles costs me about 63 dollars at the current cost of gasoline: my cost per mile is around twenty-four cents.

Here in southern California, electricity costs about 8 cents per kilowatt hour. A Tesla Model S battery pack holds 85 kwh of electricity. Thus, to fill a Tesla to go 265 miles costs $6.80: a bit less than the current cost of two gallons of gasoline. To put it another way, I’m paying about 250 dollars a month for gasoline right now (sometimes more). If I had a Tesla, I’d pay about 32 dollars for a month’s worth of driving. That’s a significant savings in the cost of running a car.

Something else to consider when thinking about electric vehicles: the reduced cost of maintenance. An electric car has no transmission, no radiator, no water pump, and no alternator. There are no belts to break or replace. Even the brakes will last longer thanks to what’s called regenerative braking: the motor itself acts as the brake whenever you take your foot off the accelerator—an action that also returns electricity to the battery pack. You’ll never have to pay for a smog check. Instead of regularly visiting a gas station, you’ll usually just charge the car at home overnight like you charge your cellphone. Over all, an electric car has far fewer maintenance issues: they are simpler and longer lasting machines.

Of course, the upfront cost of a Tesla is a huge sticking point. Its base price is about eighty thousand dollars. Compared to the cost of say a Honda, it would take you a lot of years to actually save any money with a Tesla. Therefore it probably doesn’t make much economic sense just now to get one—if you’re in the market for a Honda. If you’re in the market for a luxury car, however, it’s hard to see why you’d get anything else, unless you enjoy burning money. And even when it comes to performance, since a Tesla goes zero to sixty in 4.2 seconds, it outruns Porsche, Mercedes, Audi—and really any other production car, regardless of price.

And Tesla has one other trick up its sleeve that its competitors lack: the SuperCharger network.

Currently there are over 70 Tesla SuperCharger stations around the country, with more being added every week. They make it possible now for a Tesla owner to drive from San Diego to Vancouver, or Miami to New York City, or New York City to Los Angeles—for free. A Tesla owner can pull up to a SuperCharger, plug in, and drive away twenty minutes later with a fully charged battery without paying a dime. You could leave your wallet behind, stay with friends, and your cross country trip would cost you nothing at all.

For the rest of us, there are some more reasonably priced electric cars available from other manufacturers. Unfortunately they all face the problem of being able to go only around eighty miles per charge. Of course, since most people drive less than forty miles per day, that’s not necessarily such a serious issue. Mitsubishi offers the least expensive electric car at about twenty-two thousand dollars. Nissan’s Leaf, the Chevrolet Spark, and Renault’s 500e are just slightly more expensive at around thirty thousand dollars. And those prices—including Tesla’s—are before you factor in the ten thousand dollar tax credit you get with any electric vehicle purchase.

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It’s Enough

The LORD said to Moses, “Command the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance will have these boundaries:

“‘Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern boundary will start from the end of the Salt Sea, cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Sea.

“‘Your western boundary will be the coast of the Great Sea. This will be your boundary on the west.

“‘For your northern boundary, run a line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor and from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan. This will be your boundary on the north.

“‘For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Kinnereth. Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea.

“‘This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side.’” (Deuteronomy 34:1-12)

A place for everything and everything in its place. God is a God of order, not of disorder. God had promised Abraham that the Israelites would have a land to call their own. At last, the day came that God gave them the details. He set up the borders and announced: this place is yours. The place names setting the boundaries of their land were familiar to the ancient Hebrews.

Whatever it is that God has asked of you, he has given you your place. He has given you your job, and he has given you the information you need in order to fulfill it all. He has established our boundaries. He doesn’t ask of us more than we can handle. He gives us enough and no more than enough.

God did not give the Israelites the entire world as their home. He gave them just a small plot of land. The total size of the land God gave Israel is about the same as the state of New Jersey. But that was all they needed. We need to be satisfied with whatever it is God has given us. He has given us enough, not too little, and not too much.

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Giving Thanks

From there the Israelites traveled to Beer, which is the well where the LORD said to Moses, “Assemble the people, and I will give them water.” There the Israelites sang this song:

“Spring up, O well!

Yes, sing its praises!

Sing of this well,

which princes dug,

which great leaders hollowed out

with their scepters and staffs.”

Then the Israelites left the wilderness and proceeded on through Mattanah, Nahaliel, and Bamoth. After that they went to the valley in Moab where Pisgah Peak overlooks the wasteland. (Numbers 21:16-20)

When someone does something nice for you, thank them. God told the people that he would give them water. God did not give his people a beer. “Beer” is a Hebrew word that means “spring” or “well.” When they got to the spring of water, they sang a song about it, praising the water and giving thanks to those who had dug the well. They didn’t sing a song praising God. They didn’t praise God for providing it at all.

How come? Did they do something wrong? Did they make God angry or hurt God’s feelings? Not at all. Certainly it is appropriate to thank God for the food we eat, for the jobs we have, for the good things that come to us in life. But it is just as appropritate to praise those who grew and harvested the food, who cooked the food, who provide our jobs, who manufactured the joys we experience in life. It is people who bring us our food, who sign our paychecks, who keep the water flowing to our showers, who get the electricity into our home so we can watch the game on a Saturday afternoon on our televisions. It’s okay to praise those things that make our lives better, and to give thanks to those who make it possible. Loving people is the best way to show our love for God. To be happy with the people God loves, to praise them for jobs well done, makes God happy, too. Simply knowing we are happy makes God happy, too, after all.

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Abandoned

Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there nearby, she began to sob.

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 he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt. (Genesis 21:14-21)

It’s hard to see through our tears. That’s why God keeps trying to wipe them away. Abraham was unhappy about sending his son and his mother away from him. But he did as his wife Sarah—and God—told him. With her son Ishmael, Hagar went off into the southern desert of Israel beyond Beersheba. Soon, she and her boy ran out of water and Hagar was certain that they would die.

But God noticed her son crying and intervened on his behalf. He comforted Hagar in that moment. Not only did he provide for their immediate, physical need for water, he answered her other concerns as an exile disowned and cast from her home: that her son would live under God’s blessing and that he would prosper. The future for her, the future for her son were not any more grim than her current circumstances were actually grim. Her worry about tomorrow, God told her was unfounded.

Ishmael’s home in the Desert of Paran was most likely in the region around Mt. Sinai. It was a mostly barren wilderness. Hagar was from Egypt, so it was natural that she would find a wife for her son from her homeland.

How can we be alone or without hope so long as God is with us? No matter how bleak the circumstances, with God things are never as they seem to be.

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