Do You See Me?

Lesson #14 on a Journey to a Water Well
June 2016

I didn’t sleep well. It was our third night in Uganda, and I was still adjusting to the seven-hour time difference and mosquito nets and was a little unnerved two of my boys were sleeping alone in a room on the other side of the Sole Hope Guest House. But I had one request. One objective I intended to keep despite my lack of sleep. I wanted time alone by the well God spent two years preparing me for.

A missionary couple picked me up early in the morning while everyone else slept. I hopped into the twenty-year-old Landcruiser with windows down and made small talk during the 15-minute drive over the Nile River bridge and eventually onto a red dirt road. We passed through what would become a gate and jostled over uneven terrain before finally parking the Landcruiser between the water well and a scraggly tree.

The Amazima Secondary School was still knee-deep in construction, and workers were scattered across 70 acres of the campus. We filed out of the Landcruiser, and the Coggins headed up the hill towards one of the school buildings. I zipped up my fleece, plopped down by the well, and tried to wedge myself between the tree and Landcruiser. I had a date with my Lord at a well.

God has a way of meeting people at water wells. Maybe it’s because He’s the Living Water. He wants to give us the kind of water that once we drink it, we will never thirst again. And as much as my experience with the water well was the fulfillment of this passage, there was another truth God wanted to reveal.

“You are the God who sees me.”
(Gen. 16:13, NIV)

For the next hour, I knelt by that well with my Bible open, praise music on, and worshiped the God who sees me. He saw me when He gave me the life-changing Christmas gift, met me on the treadmill, and then again on the playground. I’m so thankful He wouldn’t let me dismiss my son’s $3 donation and that He overwhelmed me in the preschool parking lot.

I experienced the truth Hagar discovered. But it wasn’t an easy revelation for Hagar. God revealed Himself to Hagar after a little abuse and a lot of distress. She found Him in the literal and metaphorical desert place, sitting beside the literal well and metaphorical “Living Water.”

Do not underestimate the power of Hagar’s revelation in Genesis 16 or its relevance today.

Little girls put on frilly dresses and twirl. They want to be seen, accepted and loved. They want to be found worthy. Isn’t this the primal need at the heart of the social media craze?

How many of our daughters are desperate to be seen? Desperate for someone to bear witness to their story and their lives. For someone to look at them and say, “I see you .” They’re so desperate to be pursued that a “likes” button is enough to launch them into a spiral of self-deprecation, doubt, depression, anxiety, anorexia, addiction, or promiscuity.

Today’s social media craze is a crisis of worth. Are you worthy?

We’re tempted to chase everything and everyone except the only One who sees, pursues, loves, and accepts us fully in Christ. God created us with this desire because He knew He was the only one who could fulfill the need. It’s His calling card.

Don’t get me wrong; the “likes” button is just a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality. The desire to be seen, pursued, and loved is a God-size hole that no man can ever fill. And this is why rejection, broken relationships, and divorce are so painful. The devil shoots his arrow at the heart of our needs.

And that’s why what God did for Hagar and, eventually, the Samaritan woman at the well was so powerful.

When Hagar realized God saw her, He became her God. He was no longer just the God of Abraham or the Jews. He became the God of Hagar and the Samaritan woman because He showed these women that they were seen and worthy of His pursuit and love. Not because of anything they had done. Quite the opposite. They were worthy despite what they had done but because of what Jesus would do.

The net effect of God seeing, pursuing, and loving these women is their lives change. Our lives change. He offered Hagar strength to endure and the Samaritan woman a life of purpose, passion, and satisfaction.

There are times you may feel alone, abandoned, or afraid. But you’re not alone, haven’t been abandoned, and don’t have to be afraid. God sees you.

Remind your daughters. Social media may be fun, but God never intended for it to give you worth. Beware of the lure of the “likes.”

Thankfully, you don’t have to be perfect to be seen, pursued, loved, or accepted. You can stop searching. Stop striving. God has found you worthy of His love. He extends acceptance and freedom through Christ.

But we all need to sit at the metaphorical “well,” reflect on God’s faithfulness, and recognize His presence in our lives. We need to open our Bibles and worship the God who sees you.

We need to look for the women in our lives who are struggling. Look for the women who need to be seen. Bear witness to their hurt, story, and worth. Tell them God sees them, and so do you.

And finally, we need to say yes to a life of peace, strength, confidence, and life-changing faith found through serving the God who sees me.

Lesson #14 on Journey to a Water Well
14. Don’t underestimate the peace, strength, confidence, and life-changing faith that comes through serving the God who sees you, pursues you, loves you, and accepts you fully in Christ.

Want more? Start here.
1. Read Genesis 16.
2. When Hagar fled, she found the God who sees her in the wilderness. How did her encounter with God change her life and her plans? (Genesis 16:8-16)
3. Read the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4:1-42.
4. What did Jesus mean when He said he would give her “living water”?
5. Both Hagar and the Samaritan woman experienced isolation from society. How did God’s pursuit and revelation of Himself impact them? Why did it have this effect? What effect should it have on us when we feel abandoned, alone, or afraid?