Devotional Thought for our days:

9 Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, “You must go back to your mistress and submit to her mistreatment.”

13 So she called the LORD who spoke to her: The God Who Sees, for she said, “In this place, have I actually seen e the One who sees me?” 14 That is why she named the spring, “A Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”  It is located between Kadesh and Bered.  Genesis 16:9, 13-14

140      Live your Christian life with naturalness! Let me stress this: make Christ known through your behaviour, just as an ordinary mirror reproduces an image without distorting it or turning it into a caricature. If, like the mirror, you are normal, you will reflect Christ’s life, and show it to others.

God told her to go back where she was being mistreated.

I struggle to wrap my mind around what God was doing.  Who is this God who would send a poor slave back to her owner, to undergo more mistreatment?  To send her back to where she was told to commit adultery, to conceive a baby by a man who would never love her, who would later (see chapter 21) abandon her and her son.

Why did God send her back?  Why would he not just take care fo them then and there?

Another question needs ot be asked though, one that we really need to ponder.

Why was she the one who got to see God face to face?  Why did she have the great assurance that God would even listen to her prayers?  Look at the name of the place, see Hagar’s faith.

The One who sees me….

There are times where wonder why God would bother with me.  There are other times where I wonder why He would place me where he does so often, dealing with people who are in more trauma than I comprehend.

That’s when Hagar’s faith, this lady who was overlooked, taken for granted, given the worst work ( the idea of having to be involved with the 85-year-old spouse of her mistress must have been a bit traumatic) and not cared for, yet God came to her.  God was met her face to face and ensured Her of His presence in her life and in her sons.

As He is in ours.  He sees us… you and I.

Assured of that, I can live life, praying that my life is that mirror, that people looking at me see God.  And then, I can find some peace… in awe of the glory of God that surrounds us.  For He sees us.

Amazing love, how can it be?

I don’t know how… but I sure need it, and it is surely there.

AMEN!

Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge (Kindle Locations 690-693). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.