The God Who Sees Me

I recently heard a sermon based on Genesis 16 about Hagar. She tends to get a bad press, but it was not her fault that Sarai encouraged her husband not to wait any longer for the promise that God had given to him that he would have a son. Although Abram had believed God for this promise, and we are told that this was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6), they decided to take matters into their own hands. Abram slept with Hagar, who became pregnant. This resulted in a breakdown in the relationship between Hagar and her mistress, and Hagar fled into the desert.

It was there that God met her and asked her where she had come from and where she was going. This is always a good question, and perhaps it’s something we can ask ourselves at the start of this new year! Hagar’s name means ‘flight’, and it comes from the same root in Hebrew as the word for ‘refugee’. But even in the place in the desert to which she had fled, God saw her and met with her. He spoke into the future of her son, Ishmael, and encouraged her to return.

Hagar was so impacted by her meeting with God that she called Him ‘The God who sees me’ (Genesis 16:13). He told her to call the son who was to be born to her Ishmael, which means ‘God hears’. What a wonderful reminder that, even in the most desperate circumstances, when we have suffered and are feeling alone and abandoned as in a desert, we can be reminded that God sees our situation and He hears our cry.

One time when I was on a flight, sitting by the window and looking down at the towns and villages below, I was pondering on the huge numbers of people in the world and saying to the Lord, “Do you really see every single person in the world and know all about each one?” I felt Him reply, “Yes, I do see”, and I was reminded of today’s verse, which says: “But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.”

 How encouraging for us all that we have a Heavenly Father who sees us in any and every situation, and He hears our cries. He knows about our troubles and griefs and wants to take them in hand. Let’s commit ourselves afresh to Him today so that He can do this.