Yesterday, I spoke about Sarai and how she may have been feeling during this whole ordeal. Today I want to turn back to Hagar. After Hagar ran away, we see that the Messenger of Yahweh, the angel of the LORD, appeared to her.
I want to pause and draw your attention to something. This isn’t just any ol’ angel. This is Jesus before birth. This is the Son of God appearing to Hagar.
How do we know this? Look at Genesis 16:10, he says, “I will give you many descendants.” “I WILL.” No ordinary messenger could make that promise because any ordinary angel would have known nor made a promise of what God can do. This is Jesus.
Back to Hagar. The angel of the LORD found her sitting beside a spring of water. Hagar stopped running. Maybe it was to rest, maybe it was to question her choices, perhaps she was struggling with her decision to run, or maybe she was considering the actions that got her to this point. Nevertheless, she stopped.
This is where Jesus found her.
I haven’t told many people this because, honestly, I’m still trying to make sense of it. Right after the first of the year, I awoke one morning with a voice in my head telling me that “your word for the year is ‘BE.'” I obviously had not had my coffee; I wasn’t even out of bed yet, so I shook my head and told myself that it made no sense and proceeded to respond to the middle-aged urgency of bladder control.
The voice said it again. “Your word for the year is ‘BE’!”
Now I am truly thinking I am losing my mind because it doesn’t make sense. I tell myself to go get coffee, and then maybe I might know what is going on.
But the voice….
Louder this time, “YOUR WORD FOR THE YEAR IS BE!”
(Yes, I understand the insanity of all this, but here we are.)
I do believe it was God. He was telling me to focus on this ‘BE’. Now I haven’t had a “word for the year” since before SarahBeth was born. I thought about it, but kids, life’s little blessings of distraction, have kept me from choosing a word. Instead, I have focused on surviving the days.
At this point, I am questioning the voice. Be? Be what? It doesn’t make sense. “Be” is a verb. I feel like it needs a follow-up word to tell me what to “be.”
Later, I relay the story to Braxton, and he questions the way I questioned. Then he said, Maybe that is what God wants you to do. Spend the year finding out how to “be” and what God is trying to tell you.
I tell you this to reflect back on Hagar. She was “being” still. She had stopped running and was resting. She was taking a moment to “be” accessible to God.
Are there areas of your life that you are running from God that you are trying to hide from him? El Roi sees all of you, so you know there is no sense in trying to hide them from him.
Maybe you think that if you stay busy enough, you will be good enough to be seen. Maybe you struggle with past circumstances that make you question your worth. (I know I do.)
My challenge today is to take a moment, a breath, to “be” in the presence of God. Lock the door to the bathroom so the children can’t come in (even if they stand at the door and scream and kick—that’s just proof of life), or bundle up and step into Elohim’s creation, take a deep breath, lift your head to El Roi, and just “be” seen for a moment.
Lay your heart out before him and let him in. Uncover the dark areas and know that He sees you just the way you are, and He adores you.
I hope you have a great day with Jesus!
Life on E Street 