Giving God a helping hand: Day 2

Depending on what day it is, one of my most favorite names for God is El Roi, The God who Sees.
"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:13
Our God sees everything!
Like I said it depends on the day whether I love that about Him or not. When I'm having a bad day, I'm mean to my husband, or say something rude to the car that just cut me off, I really like to pretend that God might have missed seeing that ugly moment. But, then there are the times that my heart is aching, I feel lonely, ugly, invisible or down right depressed, when I am hiding from the world, I am so thankful that God still sees me.
He doesn't just see us He sees us. He sees right through us. He knows our thoughts and understands our emotions better then we know our own. He sees us and loves us personally, individually, intimately.
When I was little I loved the story of Zacchaeus. He was a little man, and very unpopular because he had grown wealthy collecting taxes for Rome. All he wanted to do was see Jesus, but as Jesus passed by poor Zacchaeus was too short to see, so he climbed up in a tree to catch a glimpse. That day, lost amongst a huge crowd, struggling to see Jesus, Zacchaeus didn't just see Him, He saw Zacchaeus! Jesus the Savior, saw poor Zacchaeus up in that tree and He knew that what that sad, lost little man needed, to be seen.
"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:10
Genesis 16 is absolutely about taking matters into our own hands, about consequences and miss-steps of faith, but it is also about a God who sees, and loves, and cares for the lost and lonely.
For some reason it is easy to skip over Hagar in this story. Even though she has a major role, since the narrative as a whole is about Abram, she becomes a minor character, a means to teaching Abram a valuable lesson. Yet that is not how God saw her. In fact God was very careful to show that though the story isn't really about her, she is very important to Him.
After running away because Sarai mistreated her, lost in the desert, alone, pregnant and likely scared, Hagar found out that she too was significant.
"The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur." Genesis 16:8
I have to stop here, "The angel of the LORD found her..." He was looking for her! God seeks us when we are lost! How awesome is that.
"And he said, 'Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?' 'I am running away from my mistress Sarai,' she answered. Then the angel of the LORD told her, 'Go back to your mistress and submit to her.' The angel added, 'I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.' The angel of the LORD also said to her; 'You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of you misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and every one's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.' She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: 'You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me,' Genesis 16:7-13
Hagar wasn't just some slave girl to be used and mistreated, she was loved by the LORD. Though her story was part of a much bigger picture, God still had a purpose just for her. When she was lost and alone, God came and spoke words of comfort (granted some of the words might not have been all that comforting but we'll get to that tomorrow). He saw her misery and reached out to her.
That's who our God is. He's the God who sees our hidden pains. Who hears our silent cries. Hagar might have been a minor character in Abram's story but she was the lead in her own. Just because we don't know that much about her doesn't mean she was any less important to God.
You and I might feel like a minor characters in someone else's story, living our lives in the shadow of our parents, our spouse, our siblings or boss, but God sees each of us as a main character. He sees YOU!