MY GOD SEES ME

Ever been in a situation where you felt alone and forgotten?

It is normal to have those feelings of isolation at some point in our earthly life. Life can be very unpredictable as sometimes you wake up with a different name and go to bed with a different one. A widowed friend of mine once told me that she woke up one morning Mrs. Somebody and by lunchtime, everyone was referring to her as the “widow”. Her husband died in a road accident on the way to work that morning and it seemed as if her identity had suddenly changed and her new circumstances had suddenly become her new identity.

In Genesis 16 and 21, we encounter a character whose circumstances changed so fast in two different occasions. She is an Egyptian woman called Hagar.

First Scenario

In Gen 16, She is employed and comfortably housed and provided for by her employers for whom she was expecting a son. As the pregnancy progressed, she found herself jobless, pregnant and unemployed. According to Vs 4, she had become proud and despised Sarah on realization that she was pregnant. This makes Sarah cry out to Abraham who gives Sarah the greenlight to get rid of the slave girl. Sarah mistreats Hagar to the extent she opts to run away (vs 6). Humanly speaking, one thinks that Hagar was at fault and deserved her current predicament. You only sympathize with her pregnant and alone in the desert, probably trying to find her way back to Egypt.

However, when the Angel of the Lord appears in vs 7-vs 14, her conversation with the angel is shocking. The angel calls her by name and by occupation” Hagar, slave of Sarah” (vs8) and assures her that God had heard her cry of distress (vs 11). Hagar is perturbed by the sudden turn of events. She wonders if she had she really seen God and lived to talk about it?

So, God was really seeing her alone, pregnant and troubled in the desert!

She brands him “A God who Sees”

Second Scenario

The angel of the Lord in the first scenario commands Hagar to go back to her boss and submit which she obeys. In Genesis 21, we have the same cast, different script. Hagar had already given birth to Ishmael and Sarah had also gotten pregnant and given birth to Isaac.  The sons of Abraham are grown and able to play together (VS 9) then Sarah decides it is time to get rid of the Egyptian slave and her son.

This time, Abraham’s loyalty is divided and God intervenes to ask Abraham to let go of the Egyptian and her son. So, in the morning, Hagar wakes up to a painful firing. She is sent away with just some food and water and Abraham literally puts the child on her back. She is back to the desert again, alone, isolated and with a child strapped on her back.

When the water runs out, Hagar puts the boy down and goes some 100metres away so as to watch her son die from a distance (vs 15-16). I find this to be one of the most painful scenes in the Bible. This time, God sees both the mother and the son crying and shows up again. He promises to make Ishmael into a great nation and opens Hagar’s eyes to “see” that there was a well she could get water for her son.

Not only was he a ‘God who sees me’ but also ‘sees my child’ and ‘helps me to see’.

Life Lessons

Many of us find ourselves in Hagar like situations sometimes.  

In the twinkling of an eye, our circumstances change. Sometimes life takes turns that you did not anticipate; A spouse dies prematurely or decides to walk away, you lose a child or a friend or a job. It can be easier to deal with some of these circumstances if you are the only one in the mix but much more difficult if there is a pregnancy or a child in the picture. Things become a little bit more complicated.

The Hagar story is there to remind us that regardless of our circumstances, whether we have gotten ourselves in trouble or someone else’s perceptions and desires have gotten us in trouble, God sees us.

Even in the loneliest of places, the deserted places the darkest of places, God sees. He sees the pain, the struggle, the fears and the tears. There is never a moment when we are truly alone.  Not only does he see, but he also hears our cries. He has a plan for the life of even the most unexpected amongst us.

Jesus in Luke 12:6-7 assures us that we are worth more than the sparrows yet not even one sparrow is forgotten by God. When it’s all dark and gloomy and lonely, look up. God will open your eyes to see that there is a way where you thought there was no way. May the power of Christ be made perfect even in our weakest darkest moments.  

Betty Rotiche

(First published on www.theotots.com)

About the Author Betty Rotiche is a Kenyan citizen married to Geoffrey and the mother of three children: Jubilee, Hashanah and Ariella. She is a passionate teacher, counselor and writer. Most importantly, she loves the Lord Jesus unashamedly.