I See You

“I see you” is the line the characters in Avatar say to each other when they are trying to express love and affection. Our pastor brought this up in a recent sermon, talking about trust and what it would mean to say I trust you instead of I love you.

To be honest, I thought the phrase “I see you” was an interesting way to express love to another person. I “see” things everyday so why would seeing another person mean anything on a deeper level. Then in my devotion the other night, I came across the passage Genesis 16:7-14, where Hagar has an experience with an angel of the Lord, who tells her to return to her mistress and he will give her many descendants, for she will have a son and the Lord has heard her cry for distress. Hagar was a slave given to Abraham to provide him with descendants since Sarah was barren. Hagar was seen as nothing more than a means to an end for Sarah.

But after Hagar speaks with the angel of the Lord, she refers to the Lord as, “You are the God who sees me.” God is the first one who sees Hagar for the special individual that she is. Hagar marks this by naming God, El Roi, meaning the God who sees me. This passage changes the way I look at the phrase “I see you.” It blows me away to think that the Lord “sees” each and every person on this Earth and that He knows their name and story and everything about them. He wrote every detail of every one of those stories. It is just unfathomable to me that God has that much of an intimate connection with every person on earth, but He does. No matter how small you may feel, God sees you and that is pretty comforting to remember.