The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert....and he said, "Hagar, where have you come from and where are you going?"
"I am running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.
Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her."
The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."
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."
That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi -- well of the Living One who sees me. (Genesis 16:6-14)
"I believe," says J. Vernon McGee, and many others, "that the angel of the LORD here is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ gone out to seek the lost again. He's that kind of Shepherd..."
He is our God of grace, the One who sees us and the One who comes after us. The Hound of Heaven He is called by Francis Thompson.
Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, but He sought them, asking "Where are you?"
God is always the One to pull us back to Him.
Hagar had another encounter with God.
When Ishmael was a child and they were wandering in the desert, near death, she placed her child under a bush and removed herself so she would not have to watch him die.
As she sat there, she began to sob, along with her child.
God heard their cry, and the angel of God called from heaven, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid.... Lift the boy up and take him by the hand..."
"Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink." (See the whole story in Genesis, chapter 21).
So the God who sees is also the God who hears.
Our union with God is invisible, and so sometimes we might feel alone, ignored or even abandoned by
Him. The cords that connect us to Him may sometimes seem broken -- no, they are just invisible!
Ask Him to open your eyes, as He opened Hagar's eyes to see the well and receive the life-giving water.
It was there, but He had to open her eyes so she could see it!
And ask Him to open your ears to hear His Words of comfort.
"He heard their cry" contains our hope.
He is the God who sees and the God who hears.
He is everywhere. We need to have our eyes and ears opened by His Spirit.
And, look, He knew her name. "He calls his sheep by name," we read in John 10.
When we are aware of His Presence we will feel more loved and more secure -- safer -- than we ever felt at any other time.
Open our eyes, LORD.
Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of Truth Thou hast for me.
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Open my ears, that I may hear
Voices of Truth Thou sendest clear
And while the wave notes fall on my ear
Everything false will disappear.
We can't open our own eyes or ears any more than the blind and deaf men could open theirs when Jesus came to them.
It took the look and the voice of Jesus to reveal Him to their physical senses.
If they could have opened their own eyes and ears, they wouldn't have needed Jesus!
It's the same for us today.
Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus
To reach out and touch Him, and say that we love Him
Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen...
And everything false will disappear......
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