As she walks through the long desert, the cold wind brushing against her face, exhausted and sore-footed, her thoughts overwhelm her. Hagar probably begins to question her existence and every decision she has made. Life has somehow boiled down to this: she is pregnant, running away from her mistress, and the burden feels far too heavy to bear. At this point, her only thought is to go back home. Maybe there, she might finally find peace.
Then she sits by a spring beside the road to Shur.Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appears:“What are you doing here, and where are you going?”Hagar answers, daring to give a defence for her situation,”I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”
“Go back and submit to her,” says the angel of the Lord.In those few words, He gently corrects Hagar, pointing out her defiance, yet still acknowledging her pain.What follows is one of the most beautiful and intimate moments in Scripture , proof that the Lord orchestrates our lives and remains present in every situation we walk through.
The angel of the Lord says, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. You are pregnant, and you will bear a son, and you shall call him Ishmael.”
There are several moments in Scripture where the Lord Himself gives a child a name, and one thing they all have in common is this, with the name comes divine purpose and God’s personal revelation to His people.
“You shall call Him Jesus, for He is the Saviour of the world.”
“You shall call him John; he will prepare the way for the Messiah.”
“You shall call him Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction.”
He heard.He saw.And He acted.
After all this, all Hagar could do was acknowledge:
“You are the living God who sees me- El Roi.I have now seen the one who sees me.”
To be told all this when you feel worthless, dissociated, and unwanted is proof that there is One who cares deeply and truly sees you.
Later on, it is finally time for Hagar to leave, and this time, the Lord approves of it. Hagar and Ishmael are sent away with only food and water, but not long into the journey, the water runs out.
As Ishmael grows weak, Hagar places him under a bush and weeps from a distance, unable to watch her son die. Alone in the wilderness, with no home and no hope left, the Lord appears once again.
He hears the cry of the boy, reminds Hagar of His promise, and provides water.
In those moments when darkness seems to be all that surrounds us, when our hearts ache and the weight of the world rests heavily upon our shoulders, I have come to learn, now more than ever, that there is One who sees.
For it is in such moments that loneliness speaks the loudest; when it feels as though no one understands the depths of your pain or the burdens you silently carry. But oh, to know there is a Greater One.
He does not merely glance at our suffering from afar and remains distant. He steps into it.
He is the light that pierces the darkness.
He is the Saviour in the midst of the battle.
He is the Comforter who sits with us in sorrow.
Oh my soul, remind me of El Roi — the One who sees.
Let not my heart die beneath the aching weight of this world.
Let me not wallow as though I am helpless,
for my heart has found the One who sees.
After Him, and only Him, shall I run.
I will hold onto the hem of His robe when strength fails me,
for now I know that through every season, I am not alone.
And when the storm grows calm,
when I finally reach the dry shores,
I will testify of the battles He has won,
how He was my portion when there was not enough.
For You are El Roi —
the One who sees.
~Gift