It’s Right There!

Cath and I recently had a week away in St. Ives in Cornwall - quite possibly one of the most beautiful places in the world! It was in January, and so the normal crowds of people weren’t around, and we spent the week just walking around, investigating all the nooks and alleys of this beautiful seaside town. We got to know St Ives well in that week, but each day we would discover something new – another side alley leading somewhere we hadn’t been before. It is amazing how you can walk past things many times and not notice them.

Well, today’s verse is like that experience on steroids. If you back up from today’s verse, you’ll read about how Abraham was putting on a great feast to celebrate the day that Isaac was weaned (not something you see much in the UK!). Sarah saw Hagar’s son Ishmael laughing, and so demanded that Abraham send them away. Harsh! Abraham dutifully followed through, and Hagar and Ishmael were sent on their way with some bread and a skin of water.

Of course, it didn’t take long for the bread and water to run out, and now Hagar found herself in a desperate situation with death knocking at their doors - so much so that she put Ishmael under a bush and sat at a distance (we’re told, about a bowshot away - pre-metric), so that she didn’t have to watch her son die. What a desperate and traumatic situation!

It’s at this moment that the Lord spoke to Hagar, reassured her that all was going to be OK and then opened her eyes to see a well of water. A well of water! How on earth did Hagar miss that? Surely in her desperation she would have been searching for anything resembling a well or a stream, and let’s not forget, she was in Beersheba, which means ‘well of seven’. But when you can’t see something, you can’t see it.

It makes me wonder if there are things the Lord hides from us until the time He wants us to see them, or until a time that we are ready to see them. It makes me ask the Lord to open my eyes to the things I can’t see, but need to see. In the story it was God who opened Hagar’s eyes - just as it was God who opened the eyes of Elisha’s assistant to see the army of angels all around them in 2 Kings 6:16-17. So, it’s not about us straining our eyes or concentrating more. I’s about trusting the Lord that He will show us what we need to see at exactly the right time.

If you’re in a difficult situation, which seems as if it has no solution in sight, maybe today you could ask God to show you things you can’t see, and have that reassurance that He is with you, and He is able to help, rescue, and restore.