I’ve been thinking of Hagar lately. For those who don’t know, Hagar was Abraham’s wife Sarah’s slave, with whom Abraham had a son named Ishmael. Hagar and Sarah had a contentious relationship because of that, which led a pregnant Hagar to run away from Sarah.
Then, the angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert, and the angel told Sarah to go back to Hagar and submit to her. The angel also declared that they would increase Ishmael’s descendants to be too numerous to count. This is Hagar’s response:
“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi [well of the Living One who sees me]; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.”
– Genesis 16:13-14
Hagar was a slave. She would have been of little consequence in Abraham ’s household and likely didn’t have a choice in effectively becoming Abraham’s concubine. If she died in the desert, she no one would see her.
However, instead of dying alone and forgotten in the desert, the Lord’s angel came to Hagar and blessed her. For Hagar, that meant a lot.
Hagar was someone who had next to nothing. She could have called God anything – Provider, Generous, Love, Source of Blessings, etc. However, what she focused on was that she was seen. The name that Hagar gave to God is El Roi – The God who sees.
Sometimes, just like Hagar, we can feel hopeless and feel like no one knows or cares about us. But we also, like Hagar, have a God who sees us – in all our pain, imperfection, and shame – and cares deeply about us. He knows us. He still sees us today.