Read: Genesis 16

Does God really see you? Does God really care about what happens in your life? These are questions that Sarai and Hagar probably asked. And these are questions that we ask sometimes.

Sarai had been promised a child. Yet she had waited and waited for many years and still she didn’t have a baby. She must have been wondering if she was ever going to have this promised child. She was getting older and older. What could she do? Sarai thought she had a good idea. She thought she knew how to solve the problem of not having a baby. She decided to give her servant Hagar to Abram and if they had a baby, that baby would be called Sarai’s baby. This was something that was done more often in the Bible times.

But Sarai’s solution to the problem was not good at all. It only caused more problems. The real problem was that Sarai had stopped looking at God. She had taken her eyes off God and stopped trusting him. She tried to sort things out without God.

Abram, by doing what Sarai said, had also taken his eyes and trust off God. And what about Hagar? She also wasn’t focused on the Lord. We understand that she would have been scared and so ran away from cruel Sarai. But instead of doing this, she should have continued to trust God.

When Hagar was all alone in the desert, the Lord came to her in the form of an angel. The Lord spoke kindly to her, asking her what she was doing in the desert. The Lord told her to return to Sarai and that he would be with her and care for her and her son. Hagar realized that she was not alone but that God saw her wherever she was. And so, Hagar called him, “You are a God of seeing.” The Lord has seen and heard her. And this is what God is like. He sees every one of his children. He never forgets us, even in our pain and suffering. The Lord sees you and me wherever we are. He is the God who sees!

Reflection with your child:

Why does Hagar call God, “You are a God of seeing”?

Source: Sermon by Rev. S. ’t Hart