She ran...He SAW

“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me…”-Gen. 16:13

NOTE: Hagar is the only one in the Bible who gives a name to God. I find it striking that she is a woman and also the name she gives me...so profound...

Genesis talks of a young slave woman who was seen only as an object to reproduce and nothing more. Her owners, Sari and Abraham saw themselves as upstanding citizens and viewed Hagar as someone who was beneath them, just as we do today when we see a human who is in a position of being objectified.

We forget they have a story; they have a reason for being in the place they find themselves. We stop trying to see them as someone’s daughter, someone’s mother, someone who has a name.

Hagar fled from her home feeling unseen and abandoned. She had been kicked out from the only home she has known feeling as though she was at fault, a criminal according to the family she served. But as she sat in the desert, in her most critical time God saw her and she was known.
My hope is that as we finish this year we would see not only these women who have a “past” but all people whom we casually dismiss as people who have names and they have journeyed from somewhere to be where they are now.
God saw Hagar and she knew she was seen despite the way she was treated by those who should have treated her well.
At New Friends New Life I am SEEING each woman has a name, each woman is a daughter, and each one is a jewel in her Creator’s eye.

“The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert…And he said to her, “where have you come from and where are you going?”-Gen. 7-8
When we start to SEE these women as victims we can give mothers and their children a chance to live as a family. Hagar went into the remotest of places looking for a way to escape. Her life was out of control not knowing what to do or where to go, so she hid.
God asks her a question, “Where have you been and where are you going?” He wanted to engage this woman and treat her as a human being. First of all he FOUND her. It didn’t matter how far she got God still found her in her troubles. Not only that, but he wants to know about her and love her in the midst of her troubles.
The questions are valid, because in order for Hagar to know who she is and how God SEES her she’s got to be honest in where she has been and how she wants to change her life.
The women at New Friends New Life have been victimized since they were young but they have to choose change their path. However, there have to be people along the path to help them SEE their worth and walk with them as they choose to be different.
There is hope for them, for me, for you, God sees us, finds us, and wants to walk with us through our circumstances.