Noticed by God

Hagar. The Bible has a lot to say about her, actually. She’s an Egyptian slave. She’s an outsider. She’s the mother of Ishmael, and Ishmael is often characterized as the son of the flesh, while his half-brother Isaac is the son of the promise.

But when you really open it up and start to read it – like we did this past weekend – you see some striking things. First of all, Hagar is visited by God. She has an encounter with “the Angel of the Lord,” which is almost always the way the covenant God reveals himself to his people. But she’s not “his people.”

Also, she receives a promise. That her own son would be blessed, would be victorious, would also be a great father.

But most importantly, she gives God a name. Who else does that in scripture? But this woman was so struck by this encounter and this promise that she can’t help but shout out and rejoice and praise the living God by giving him some sort of descriptor – “El Roi,” the God who sees.

Hagar was an Egyptian slave, purchased by Abraham. No one really saw her. When they did, they only saw her as property. Sarah saw her as a way to remain in Abraham’s good graces, by providing a son. And no one saw her as she slipped from the camp late one night, her belly round and pregnant.

But God saw her. He didn’t just see her, he saw through her and beyond her. He saw her potential and her pain and her promise. And he revealed himself to her.

In that one act, God established a spiritual practice of noticing. When God sees us, it’s more than a passing glance. It’s a searching and revealing. It’s a deep, lingering look that gets to the heart.

And he invites us into this spiritual practice. What does it really mean to notice?

When you see that cashier at the store who handed back the wrong change, what do you see? Do you see a mistake…or do you see a single mom, working multiple shifts at multiple jobs, trying to not only make ends meet but provide a better tomorrow for her kids?

When you get cut off in traffic, what do you see? Some inept driver who couldn’t be bothered to use a turn signal…or do you see a man in a state of emergency, trying to get home because he just found out some bad news, news that distracted him but also drives him to find answers?

When you see the police arresting someone, their hands on the back of a cruiser while the cop frisks them, what do you see? A common criminal…or a person at the end of their rope, hoping beyond hope for a lenient sentence, who is in desperate need of redemption?

When you have lunch with a friend, what do you see? Someone with no real needs or cares in the world…or someone hiding, covering up some shame, obsessing over a long ago guilt, dying inside because of some hurt and pain?

What will it take to see through and beyond the exterior that so many of us put up? We have to get in tune with God’s Spirit, to really see like he does. When he saw Hagar, he saw what no one else saw. It changed her life. It set a destiny of her child. And her child’s children. It meant the world to her, but it also meant greater things.

When we see people, let’s really see them. Engage in this spiritual practice of noticing by disengaging from judgment. There’s enough of that going around. Instead, let’s really look deep to find what is hidden, what God wants to reveal, and release a promise of hope to those in need.