Scripture Reading
“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 16:13 (NIV)
Reflection
In a world where so much of our worth feels measured by visibility—likes, approval, being chosen—feeling unseen can wound deeply. Whether you’ve been betrayed, carry the shame of betrayal, or live in the silence that follows disclosure, it’s easy to believe that you are now outside of God’s focus. Alone. Forgotten. Too messy to be remembered.
But then we encounter Hagar. A vulnerable woman in a broken system, she is used, mistreated, and cast aside. She runs into the wilderness not only with physical exhaustion but also with emotional and spiritual abandonment. And yet, Genesis 16 tells us that God Himself meets her there—not to correct or ignore her, but to see her.
Hagar becomes the first person in Scripture to name God: El Roi—the God who sees me. Not just sees generally. Sees me. Her encounter shatters the lie that pain isolates us from God. It tells us that when we are overlooked or overwhelmed, when we’re curled up in the desert of our consequences or the fallout of someone else’s sin, we are not alone.
The God of Hagar is the God of you. He sees what happened. He sees how you’ve been hiding. He sees the way you feel invisible in your pain or powerless in your healing journey. And still, He draws near—not to shame, but to comfort. Not to expose, but to restore.
To believe in El Roi is to begin to trust again: to trust that your story is not too far gone, that your sorrow is not too subtle, that your tears have not been wasted. In the gospel, the God who sees is also the God who comes. Jesus, who saw the crowds and had compassion, who saw the bleeding woman and honored her faith, who saw the thief on the cross and promised him paradise—He sees you too. Not the curated version. The real you. And He calls you by name.
Prayer
El Roi,
I confess that sometimes I wonder if You see me at all. Not just the outer me, the one who smiles and functions, but the hurting me, the scared me, the one who’s unsure how to keep going.
But You are the God who saw Hagar. The God who did not walk past her pain. The God who sees me now.
Help me believe that I am not forgotten. Re-teach me what it means to be known without shame. Heal the places in me that have gone silent from sorrow or fear. Speak kindly into the parts of my story that still feel too raw to name.
Let Your seeing be the beginning of my healing.
Amen.
Practice
Take 10–15 minutes to be still before God. Find a quiet space and consider this question:
Where in my life do I feel most unseen, overlooked, or misunderstood?
Write down your answer. Don’t censor it. Let your response be honest, even if it feels messy.
Now, invite Jesus into that exact place. Ask Him to see it with you—not to fix it immediately, but simply to sit with you in it.
You might pray:
“Jesus, if You really see me here, would You show me? Would You remind me that I matter to You?”
Close your time by reading Genesis 16:13 aloud. Let it be both a declaration and a hope.
