Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: FALSE (04/15/21)
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TITLE: The God Who Sees Me | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Kiel
04/22/21 -
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She had been a somebody in Egypt, a daughter of Pharaoh. And then her father had just given her away to Abram to be his wife Sarai's servant. With a dismissive wave of her father's hand, Hagar had gone from being a somebody to being a nobody.
And then later, Sarai handed her over to Abram to bear a child on the couple’s behalf. When Hagar became pregnant with Abram's child, she had flaunted her pregnancy in front of Sarai. Look! There was finally something that she could do, that Sarai could not.
And unfortunately, Sarai did look. And Hagar could tell that Sarai did not like what she saw or heard. She complained to Abram who told her to do whatever she wanted with Hagar.
Hagar found there were worse things than being invisible.
So, she ran away. The only problem with running away was that she could not leave behind the person she hated the most--herself.
Weary from her angry trudging, she paused to catch her breath. She leaned over to brush sand off her robe. When she straightened back up, her mouth dropped open, and her heart quaked. The angel of the Lord was standing right in front of her! An angel! Right there in front of inconsequential, insignificant, invisible Hagar.
“Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
The angel of the Lord knew her name!
"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai." she said, her voice trembling. Would he strike her dead for daring to do such a thing?
His next words made her heart plummet to her toes.
"Go back to your mistress and submit to her." Go back? Hadn't God seen how she was treated? But who could argue with an angel?
Her head dropped in discouragement, her shoulders slumped, and she resignedly turned around to trudge back into anonymity and worthlessness.
"Hagar."
She slowly turned. Was there more to his message? Was he going to remind her not to forget to grovel in front of Abram and Sarai?
"I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. You are now pregnant, and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery."
She rolled his words around in her mouth, as if it were a sweet morsel to savor. "Ishmael - God hears."
God not only saw her, He heard her. Everything she had believed about being invisible and insignificant was a lie.
The angel vanished and Hagar stood there, frozen in disbelief. And she realized that she had seen God, and that He had seen her. She declared, “I will name the Lord 'El Roi, You are the God who sees me'. For I have now seen the One who sees me.”
She returned to Abram and Sarai, no longer aimlessly trudging to an unknown destination but striding confidently toward her destiny.
She eventually gave birth to her son and watched him grow. And every time she called Ishmael's name, she remembered that God not only saw her, but heard her. She treasured in her heart the indisputable fact that she was seen, heard and valued by El Roi, "the God who sees me."
***
Like Hagar, some of us hold a false image of ourselves as being unseen, unheard, and unloved.
But God sees you.
When you leave a party in tears because no one even notices you are there--God sees.
When you cry your heartbreak in the middle of the night, thinking no one hears --God hears.
When your heart is stabbed with another rejection, and you think no one will ever love you--God loves you.
There will always be those who refuse to see you.
There will always be those who refuse to hear you.
There will always be those who refuse to love you,
Rest in the fact that the God of the universe
Chooses to see you
Chooses to hear you
And chooses to love you.
Like Hagar, throw away the false self-image of insignificance and bask in the loving gaze of El Roi, "the God who sees me."
This story is based on the Biblical account found in Genesis 16:1-14.
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