Maybe arriving at a place where you feel unseen and unheard is the very place where God will meet you? Perhaps we have to come to our very end for God to give us a new beginning?
As we move from one year into the next, maybe this is an apt story to read?
“The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” 11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspringwill be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.” 14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba. 15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, shebegan to sob. 17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.” (Genesis 21 v 8-19)
Maybe arriving at a place where you feel unseen and unheard is the very place where God
will meet you? Perhaps we have to come to our very end for God to give us a new beginning?
Reread this story. Do you know when you have come to the end? The end of your tether?
Hagar, who had named God ‘El Roi’ because He is a God who sees her, had reached the lowest point in her life. God might have seen her before, but now she couldn’t even face seeing her own son die before her eyes.
Where did the well come from? Did God create it there and then? Or was her pain and
despair so traumatic that it had blinded her to what was in front of her? In front of her, all the time, was the well. She had come to the end of her life at the very place which would save her and her son.
This place you are in right now may not be the end, but the beginning of a new chapter in your life. Dry your eyes and look up. God’s provision may be closer to you than you realise.
Hagar’s story echoes across millennia because it speaks to something universal: the longing to be seen, to be known, to matter. Her ancient cry from the wilderness still resonates today—in the barren places of our lives, in the moments when we feel used and discarded, when shame becomes our identity and rejection our companion.
I have met people all over the world who, like Hagar, have known the feeling of being of no value. It seems it is part of the chapters of our lives, and for some, sadly, it becomes many chapters. But just as the angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert, God has seen them, and if this applies to you as we venture into a new year, then He will find you also.
God gave Hagar dignity, and she gave Him a name: El Roi, “the Seer,” and it is a name that you can use today, for He sees you and knows your name. The well that saved her life represents hidden provision amid despair. Just as Hagar named her son Ishmael, meaning “God hears,” remember that being cast out isn’t the end. Your trauma is real, but so is your God. He sees you, hears you, and has the final word on your life.
There are moments for all of us when we need to go from nothing into something—or, should I say, someone. What about you? Despite a stigma that follows you like a shadow, a disability the world uses to define your limits, feelings of inadequacy, whispering untruths in quiet
moments and failures replaying in your mind like a film on loop—you can say goodbye to being nothing and embrace your destiny by allowing God to meet you. That is what Hagar did thousands of years ago at a spring in the desert. As we step into a new year, this is what we can also do. Are you ready for this?
Missions Paul 