“You Are Not Invisible”

Sarai and Hagar

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. ² And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. ³ So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. ⁴ And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. ⁵ And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” ⁶ But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” ⁹ The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” ¹¹ And the angel of the Lord said to her,

“Behold, you are pregnant
    and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
    because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
¹² He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
    his hand against everyone
    and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

¹³ So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” ¹⁴ Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. Genesis 16:1-16 ESV

There’s so much packed into this bittersweet story of what happened between impatient individuals who were determined to get their way, on their terms and in their timing. I know that I can relate to feeling out of place, unwanted, discarded, abandoned, mistreated, castaway … anyone else?

The more I study this crazy dynamic between a handful of individuals, the more contemporary it all feels. Infertility. Single motherhood. Injustice. Pride. Selfishness. Runaway. Failure to own one’s sin. Blame. Shame. Guilt. Condemnation. Sounds like a trailer to a modern movie.

What strikes me most (maybe it’s the season I’m in) is that Hagar, the slave woman, is the person who is privileged to have a personal encounter with the living GOD of all Creation. Think on that tiny fact for this brief moment: the one person who had nothing, the one considered lowest of all is visited by the King of Kings. And this one-on-one meet up happens as she is running away from life as she knew it because she just couldn’t take it anymore. She flees (by the way, that’s the meaning of her name: to flee) out to a place where you and I would not initially choose to go — and GOD meets her there.

GOD met her in her hardest and darkest moment of life. She had no other place to go — she was a slave. So, she cast all care to the wind and just took to the road ahead of her because she felt anywhere was better than where she was.

Verse nine tells us that GOD asked her where she came from and where was she headed. The ice breaker of all time breaks the silence from Heaven. Sometimes, landing in that desert gives us a moment to not be distracted by all the noise and activity around us, and causes us to take inventory of what we’re really doing. Perhaps that’s what it takes to get our attention.

Hagar didn’t have to do anything special to get GOD’s attention. He came to her.

In her brokenness, Hagar had conversation with GOD. It was she who named Him, El Roi, the GOD Who sees (me). Imagine that, a woman with no status, no family to turn to — being called into relationship with GOD Almighty.

Maybe the desert (season) that you’re presently walking through feels like a lonely place. It could be that GOD has removed the people and distractions that would otherwise add to your downward spiral and keep you from knowing Him. Could it be that He is calling you out to talk it out with Him — one to One?

Sweet Friend, GOD has always seen you — He has always seen me. As humans we react to the here and now, not always taking the time to remember that we are known, seen and loved regardless of our circumstances because we matter to GOD.

We are never invisible to Him. His eye is always on us, and He is very mindful of our every move.

Whatever your current situation, I want you to know that He hears your cries and every whispered prayer. And He invites you to draw near to Him to know Him more.

When Hagar gave birth to her son, she named him Ishmael — GOD hears. Hagar’s relationship with GOD became personal. She recognized that He took the time to reveal Himself to her in her deepest sorrow. And she came to know Him as the GOD Who sees and hears.

It is my prayer that you will encounter Him in an up close personal manner, because He does see and He does hear because He loves – you.

For God So Loved the World

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 ESV

I love you to Heaven and Back, Girlfriend ~

LindaRJohnson, TitusTwo Visionary