The God Who Sees

“You are the God who sees me.” — Genesis 16:13

Before Isaac was born, while Sarah was still waiting for a baby, she had an idea. It was not a good idea, and it was not God’s way.

Sarah had a servant girl from Egypt called Hagar. “God hasn’t given me any children,” Sarah said to Abraham. “So take Hagar as your wife too, and her children can be mine.” Abraham agreed. Soon Hagar was expecting a baby.

But then Hagar began to look down on Sarah. And Sarah became angry and treated Hagar so harshly that Hagar ran away, out into the desert.

Hagar was alone. She was far from home. Nobody was looking for her, and she was going to have a baby. She stopped beside a spring of water in the wilderness.

But someone had come looking for her. The angel of the Lord found Hagar by the spring.

“Hagar,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from Sarah,” she said.

The angel told her to go back. And he gave her a promise. “You are going to have a son,” he said. “You must call him Ishmael, which means ‘God hears’, because the Lord has heard about your trouble.”

Hagar was amazed. Nobody else had noticed her. But God had seen her. So she gave God a name. She said, “You are the God who sees me.”

So Hagar went back, and she had a baby boy, and she called him Ishmael.

Years later, after Isaac was born, there was trouble again in the family. Sarah wanted Hagar and Ishmael to leave. Abraham was very upset, because Ishmael was his son too. But God told Abraham, “Don’t be upset. I will take care of the boy and make his family into a nation too.”

So early in the morning, Abraham gave Hagar some bread and a skin bag full of water, and sent her and Ishmael away.

They wandered in the desert. The sun beat down. And then the water ran out. Hagar laid her boy down in the shade of a bush, and went and sat a little way off. “I can’t watch my son die,” she said. And she began to cry.

But God heard the boy crying. The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy.” Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well of water! She filled the bag and gave her son a drink.

God was with Ishmael as he grew up in the desert. He became an expert with a bow and arrow, and in time he had a big family of his own.

Hagar was a servant. She was far from home, and people had treated her badly. But God saw her and heard her son, both times. Nobody is too small for God to notice.

Read it in your Bible: Genesis 16; 21:8–21

Dear God, thank you that you see me and hear me, even when I feel alone. Please help people who are lonely or far from home today. Amen.