God of the Ugly Puppy

God of the Ugly Puppy

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?”

Genesis 16:13

Christ is the God of the ugly puppy.  He sees the unlovely, He sees the unwanted and He sees the unworthy.  We pick and choose our candidates for grace very differently than He does. God chooses people we would pass over entirely. Paul says as much in I Corinthians 1:26 and following, when he declares that God chooses the weak, the foolish, the lowly, and the despised. Christ had a habit of choosing the unattractive people. Zaccheus, the woman at the well, Mary Magdalene, the maniac of Gadara, and the man at the pool of Bethesda are all vivid examples. In our text for today we see Christ, in a Christophany, revealing Himself to yet another unlikely person, Hagar. Christ revealed Himself to Hagar in spite of her background. She was a slave that Abraham had most likely acquired during his sojourn in Egypt. Besides that, probably feeling used by Sarah, she had behaved badly and been arrogant towards her mistress. An inauspicious background and bad behavior did not deter Christ from seeking her in the desert. Also, Christ revealed Himself to her at her lowest point. She had run away from Abraham and Sarah’s home, had no one to protect her, and no prospects before her. She was quite literally, at the end of herself. Christ very often chooses to reveal Himself to us when we are at the end of ourselves. Cast an eye over the earlier examples listed and see how that occurs with them. Christ gave to Hagar hope to which she could cling for the rest of her life. He did not permit her to evade her responsibilities, nor did He miraculously change her circumstances. He did, however, give her the hope by assuring her that He “saw her” and she went forward in that assurance. Does He not also see you? Rest in that assurance today.

Oh, God-Who-Sees,
give us a clear sight of Christ today.

Where the Bush is Burning
Tomm Tice