The Names of GodSample

El Roi: The God Who Sees

Infants and toddlers often experience separation anxiety because they have not yet developed the understanding that things have permanence. To young children, if they can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. This translates into, when mom and dad step away, mom and dad don’t exist. No wonder they cry! Peek-a-boo teaches them that objects don’t disappear just because you can’t see them.

God doesn’t disappear just because we can’t see him. This is the lesson the slave girl Hagar learned as she ran away from her abusive mistress. The angel of the LORD (Jesus before he walked the earth) appeared before her in the desert and spoke to her. The fact that God speaks to us is a wonderful truth! But Hagar clung to the truth of El Roi, the Hebrew for “the God who sees me.”

Human beings have a need to be seen and understood. We want to know that we matter, our stories matter, our struggles matter. To feel invisible in a room full of people is a disorienting and distressing experience, not unlike the separation anxiety of a child. To walk through a crowd and speak to no one can feel isolated and lonely.

God sees us, but it isn’t just what he does. It’s who he is. He is the God who sees you and has compassion for you. He understands your struggles. Are you in distress today? Call out to God. He sees you.

Prayer: Dear God, the one who sees me, this gives me hope! I know I am not alone. You are with me. No matter what I face today, you see me, understand me, and have compassion for me. I trust in you. Amen.