In the story of Hagar in Genesis 16, the servant woman had conceived a child by her master, Abram (Abraham), at the instigation of his wife Sarai. The original intent was to “help” God fulfill his promise to give Abram a son in his old age. But Sarai became jealous when the scheme seemed to work. She mistreated Hagar so much that Hagar ran away ¹.

At a spring in the wilderness along her journey, Hagar was met by “the angel of the Lord”. He told her to return to Abram and Sarai, and promised that her son would prosper. In response, she named Him “the God Who Sees”. Her son’s name, Ishmael, means “God Hears”.

Just a Face in the Crowd

In human nature, most of our encounters are quite superficial. Outside of our immediate circle of family and friends, we don’t really see people to get to know them as individuals. We may speak as we pass in the grocery aisle, hold the door open for someone, or discuss the weather or the ball game. But those encounters are forgotten as soon as they are over. We see and hear those people with our eyes and ears, but not with our hearts for them to really have an impact on us.

On a bigger scale, there are many times that we see people in bulk, as part of some group. Think of the crowd in a stadium, for instance. We see an amorphous blob of people; we don’t see individuals each with their own hopes, dreams, fears, baggage, goals, pain, or joys.

As I write this, the news is about those hit by a devastating hurricane with massive flooding. Help is pouring in for “all those poor people”, and rightly so. But we are finite human beings. We can’t really know each of those “poor people”, exactly who they are and what they need most at this moment. And the reverse is also true: Everyone pitching in to help is also a unique individual, contributing to the relief effort while in the midst of their own life full of “stuff”. We aren’t aware of that stuff; we just see “people helping”, and are grateful to them.

Also in the news at the moment is election politics. There is plenty being said by both sides of the debate about “those people” on the other side. Everyone is simply painted “red” or “blue” and either approved or disapproved without further ado. We don’t know — and don’t care to know — why a particular opponent has arrived at the positions they hold. We don’t take the time to learn what old hurts, lessons and other experiences went into their choices, and where we might have any overlap that would allow for compromise.

A Unique Individual

In contrast to us, God sees each person as an individual. Imagine picking one stranger out of the stadium — or the disaster area, or relief helpers, or opposing political party — and really getting to know them, as well as you know yourself. God knows every one of those strangers even more intimately than that.

Hagar is one example. She was a pregnant servant running away from an unkind mistress, on her own in the world with no one to know or care what was happening to her. Still, God knew her situation and went after her. The Bible is full of examples of God interacting with individuals in unique ways tailored to each person’s specific situation.

• Jacob: As he was leaving town to escape his brother’s wrath over being cheated (Genesis 28:10-16), God appeared to affirm him as the next link in the planned chain of descendants forming a great nation starting with Abraham.
• Joseph: Through all of his ups and downs, God remained with him (Genesis 39:1-3, Genesis 39:19-21, Genesis 41:9-16, Genesis 41:38-41).
• Woman at the well (John 4:1-30): Jesus knew her history but chose to seek her out, waiting at the well and initiating the conversation in defiance of custom and tradition.
• Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-6): Jesus stopped and called him out of his watch-from-the-sidelines tree branch.
• Nathanael (John 1:45-51): Jesus knew Him as a “an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit” after seeing him earlier sitting under his fig tree by himself.
• The hemorrhaging woman (Mark 5:25-34): When she intended to just touch quickly and then fade back into the crowd, Jesus saw her, called her “daughter”, and praised her healing faith.
• Saul (Acts 9:1-19): God stopped him — in the midst of his quest to persecute Christians — to turn his Pharisaical zeal to a new purpose: evangelism to the Gentiles.

In each case, God’s approach was tailored to the individual. He picked them out of the crowd, or found them in their lonely place, and entered their lives in exactly the way they needed.

He still does.

God Sees, Hears…and Loves

Jesus taught that God knows everyone down to the individual hairs on their head (Matthew 10:29-31). This is counterpart to the Old Testament teaching that God knows our entire lives even as He forms us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-16) and that He has specific — and good — plans for each of us (Jeremiah 1:5, Jeremiah 29:11).

When John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world“, it is not saying that God generically loves “all those poor people” in the world. He loves every Jacob and Joseph, every Nathanael and Zaccheus and Saul, every man, woman and child, you and me, uniquely, by name, as the individuals we are. Try to let that sink in:

For God so loved […me…], that He gave His only begotten Son, that […if I…] believe in Him […then I…] shall not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Is that not incredible?!

1. To be fair, Hagar wasn’t very nice to Sarai, either. Verse 4 says that “when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight.“