“So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me” (Genesis 16:13 ESV).
The only person in the Hebrew Bible who gives God a name is a woman. Not just any woman, but Hagar, an Egyptian servant and single mom, who was used and cast aside by the man who was supposed to provide for her.
Jesus (referred to in the Old Testament as the angel of the Lord) appeared to her in the desert, at her lowest place, and called her by name. In return, she called him The God Who Sees.
He sees us
He sees us when we feel alone, cast aside, abandoned, hopeless, wounded, hurting, messed up, anxious, depressed, stuck, or helpless. He sees us.
He saw me when I found myself pregnant and wounded at 22. He saw me before that, when I was writing suicidal poetry and dreaming of death.
He saw me as a child, while I stood helpless to stop the inevitable from happening, frozen in fear. He saw me long before that, when I lay strapped down, unable to breathe, with lungs collapsed 75%.
I fight him, and he sees me. I run, and he sees me. I doubt, yet he sees me.
I think I can do it better on my own, but he sees me. He sees me. And he sees you. He sees you when your child is experiencing mysterious symptoms that no expert can figure out.
He sees you when you’re trying to find money to pay that bill. He sees you when you are biting back the words you want to scream at your teenager. He sees you when your husband doesn’t.
He sees you when you are lying awake at night, cycling through the same anxious thought spirals again, unable to find peace or sleep. He sees you when the ultrasound technician can’t find the heartbeat.
He sees you when you can’t figure out what to do with that extra weight, when you face that diagnosis, when your parents leave this earth, when your toddler is throwing another tantrum, when your hormones are all over the place, when your insurance doesn’t cover the procedure, and when you are feeling completely overwhelmed by all of it.
El Roi
He is El Roi, the God Who Sees, named by a woman who lost all hope except for the spring of water in the wilderness.
He is the water of life. He will find you in your desert and bring you life. He will restore, refresh, and renew your soul—no matter where you find yourself today.
When you look back at your life, through all the wilderness moments, can you picture being seen by God? Not only does he see you, but he sees your children.
He knows where they are hurting and lonely. Recently, during my early morning alone time, I made a list of all the ways he sees me and my children.
He sees my unique teenager as she navigates the transition from high school to college and all the responsibilities. He sees my overachieving eight-year-old, who wants to do all things well, but wants to cut the corners to get there.
He sees my five-year-old, who lives in his own world most of the time but senses and perceives so much from the world around him that it hurts.
Where does he see your children?
As parents, we think we see it all, but in reality, God is the only one who really, deeply sees them.
And he can be trusted to meet them in their wilderness, even when we can’t. I pray that you can take some time to look back at where he has seen you in your life and embrace that El Roi is holding your children in his hands as well.
Consider a few extra resources:
