She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13 NIV)
A while back, I wrote a devotional about Hagar being seen by God titled, “God Sees You.” While it’s always encouraging to be reminded of the fact that God sees us and comes to our rescue during the difficult times, I realized something just as important as I was re-reading the story the other day: Hagar also saw God. “I have now seen the One who sees me,“ she remarks after her encounter with Him.
Too often we talk about whether God sees us when we’re in a crisis, but the real question is, do we see God? It’s easy to lose sight of Him when we’re facing hard times. “Why God?” and “Where is God?” are just some of the well-known questions we ask as we try to make sense of our circumstances. But not Hagar. Not only did she acknowledge “the God who sees me,” but also that she has “seen the One who sees me.” While running away from her mistress Sarai (aka Sarah) who was mistreating her, Hagar was found by the One who never took His eyes off her and reassured her that everything was going to work out for good. God has always been there and will always be there for us. Maybe if we run away from everyone and everything and run to Him, we might just see Him.
Rising with the Son 