El Roi

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.” (Genesis 16:13) 

EL-ROI “The strong one who sees”

         "Daddy-- watch  me, Daddy." 

         "Are you coming to my soccer game?"

         "How do I look?"

         We all want to be seen. Somehow, being seen makes us real. It makes us important. I'm not quite sure how that works. It's a paradox for me, because I also want to be invisible. 

          Hagar started out invisible. She was an Egyptian slave girl taken from her homeland. One day her mistress noticed her, and decided to use her to solve a problem. When it became noticeable that she was pregnant, she saw herself in a different light. She started trying to be seen in that different light by others, which led to her being driven away, out into the desert where she again became invisible. Not only was she invisible, but she was unprotected, she had no provision, no family, no friends, no hope. I've never been in her predicament, but I've felt some of these same things. 

         "Hagar, servant of Sarai..." At a spring in a desert, someone sees her, knows her, calls her by name and reminds her of her role. There would have been trees, almost like a garden. My thoughts flash forward to the Tomb, and a woman weeping because her hopes had been crushed, and someone calling her name..."Mary."

         He tells her to go home and to submit. He tells her that her son will be a wild donkey of a man, a great man, an obstinate man, but as he told Abram later, a man who was not the one promised. My mind flashes forward to a man whose "clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey." (Matthew 3:4) He preached in the Desert of Judea, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." One day he also said, "This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’" (John 1:30)

          The Might One saw Hagar. He met her in the desert when no one else cared and sent her back to the care of those who didn't see her. We aren't told whether God spoke to Abram about her. We don't know what Hagar told Sarai when Sarai saw her and asked the obvious question: "What are you doing back here?" We do know that Hagar lived with Abram and Sarai for more than fourteen years after this. Abram and Sarai accepted the name God had told Hagar he would have: Ishmael, "God hears." He heard her. He saw her. He hears us. He sees us, even when we think we are invisible.