Our devotionals have often led us to adore God as the all-knowing One. He is omniscient. Nothing takes Him by surprise. The Bible, however, goes to great lengths to personalize God’s knowledge. He is not to be considered as a super Braniac, coldly controlling nations and individuals like so many puppets. Rather, He is seen as an intimate Insider, whose heart is touched by the world He so completely understands, and, yet, so deeply loves. God not only knows, He sees.

Hagar was “mistreated” by Sarai and fled for her life. During this time of isolation and abandonment, “the angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert” (Gen 16:7). Moses calls this angel, “The Lord” (16:13), thus indicating that this was one of those times the Son of God was sent by the Father to earth before coming as the Messiah. After His caring words and reassuring promises, Hagar said to the Son, “You are the God who sees me.” And “I have now seen the One who sees me” (16:13).

David often was refreshed in His trials by the certainty that God saw him. Even when he was too burdened to speak, David knew, “you perceive my thoughts from afar” (Ps 139:2). Though surrounded by darkness, as we all sometimes are, we may join David in the assurance that, “even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you” (Ps 139:12). When injustice, oppression and intimidation seem to rule, we are comforted by the thought, “Does He who formed the eye not see?” (Ps 94:9b).

One day Jesus met a sad funeral procession of “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow” (Lk 7:12). She had lost her husband and now had gone through the sorrow of seeing her only son die. “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, Don’t cry.” (7:13). God in flesh did not see a traffic problem, he saw a brokenhearted woman. He stopped, He healed her son and “gave him back to his mother.”

What is true then remains true today. “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matt 6:4,6). Since God sees you, never give up to despair and never give in to sin’s temptations. Ask and He will help you, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chron 16:9a). Remember, “The Lord does not look at the things mans looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7b). Trust in the God who, though He sees your heart at its best and its worst, still delights in you because He always sees you “in Christ!”