To Be Seen

Her shoulders were bent, her head was bowed, her spirit was broken as she walked into the church. She sat as one in a crowd of many and tried to prepare herself to listen to what was being said but round and round in her mind the same prayer kept circling, "Lord, help me! What am I supposed to do!" She was a prisoner of circumstance.

As she tried to focus her thoughts on the melodious voice of the preacher suddenly he paused in his message and began to talk about Hagar. Hagar was the female Egyptian servant of Sarai. Sarai gave Hagar to Abram in hopes of obtaining children through her. The preacher explained how Hagar became a prisoner of circumstance when she became pregnant. The Lord found her alone in the wilderness and gave her hope. "So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, 'You are the God who sees me.'"(Genesis 16:13)

The words the preacher spoke became a ray of light to her darkened soul. After the service she timidly stood in line to speak to the one who had given her hope. When her turn finally came she slowly lifted her eyes to the preacher and asked with quiet voice, "How did the fact that God saw Hagar help her in her circumstances?"

He looked at her and smiled. "So you are the reason I told the story of Hagar. It had nothing to do with the message I had prepared but I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to tell the story about the God who sees." Then he paused and looked kindly into her tear washed eyes and said, "The answer to your question will come as you meditate on what it means to be truly seen by God."

And so the lonely prisoner of circumstance became a prisoner of hope. The truth of being fully known by God became her meditation day and night. She discovered that her true identity was not found in what others thought of her but in the reflection of the eyes of God. All her life she had wanted to be known, to be understood, to be seen. The circumstances didn't change but she did. The timid hurting woman became a beautiful woman of inner strength because as she meditated on what it meant to be seen by God she also received the quiet confidence of one who is seen, understood, known and loved by God.