seen

There are a lot of names for God, especially in the Old Testament, but I read a new one this morning. The context is this: Hagar, a pawn in Abram and Sarai’s human plan to bring him an heir, has run away from camp because of Sarai’s abuse. As she rests by a spring, pregnant and no doubt tired and dispirited, feeling like there is no place she belongs, an angel  comes to her. Go back, the angle says. God has a plan for your son.

And then this, in Genesis 16:13: “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.’” 

The God who Sees Me. What an awesome name! What a wonderful thing, to think that God is looking, he has his eye on me. He sees me!

I think of all the times in our lives when we can feel unseen. At a high school dance, when your crush seems oblivious. In college, when you wonder if your profs even care. At home, when your spouse seems to value the services you provide much more than who you are and what you long for. At work, where it seems like you’re just another piece of equipment.

Everyone else might be rushing past me, too intent on their own lives to notice that I’m sad, or happy, or frustrated. But God sees me. God knows everything I feel. God notices every circumstance of my life. God understands how it all makes me feel – he not only made this world as is everywhere in it, he took a human body and llived here for more than thirty years.

This morning it seems to me that there aren’t many things more comforting than this idea that God is watching. And I long to be able to say, as Hagar said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That intimate, direct, unarguable communication right from God that he has a plan, that he is watching over me – it seems such a sweet, sweet blessing.

I can have that, but it’s unlikely to come as overtly as it did for Hagar. However, I can talk to God whenever I want, and Jesus sits at his right hand to as assurance that I will be heard. God reveals himself not just in scripture, but in his daily providence and grace. 

So both of us are seen. God sees me, and if I look, he’ll be there. God grant me the strength to look past all the distractions and to see him at work.