Day Four: The God Who Sees, With Skin On
Day Four: The God Who Sees, With Skin On
SCRIPTURE READING: John 1:47-48; Hebrews 4:15-16 (NIV)
"'How do you know me?' Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, 'I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.'... For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet he did not sin."
DEVOTIONAL REFLECTION
Hagar met God at a spring in the wilderness and gave him a name that had never been spoken before: El Roi, the God who sees me. If you want to know what that name looks like with skin on, look at Jesus.
Everywhere Jesus goes, he keeps doing what the angel did for Hagar. He sees the people everyone else has stopped looking at. He knows the truth about a man's life before that man says a word. He stops for the people the crowd tells to be quiet. He touches the people others go out of their way to avoid touching. He isn't a God who observes suffering from a safe distance - he is a God who moves toward it, on purpose, again and again.
But here's where it costs him everything. Hagar was found by an angel God sent. Jesus didn't send anyone. He came himself. He stepped all the way into a human body, into hunger and grief and exhaustion and betrayal, so that when Hebrews says he can "empathize with our weaknesses," it isn't a nice idea. It's a fact he earned in his own skin.
And then he went further still. At the cross, God did not look away from what sin actually costs. He didn't wave it off from a distance. Jesus carried it - your worst moment, your secret shame, the wound you've never told anyone about - all the way to the point of death. No nail forced him to stay there. Love held him there. He stayed until he could say, "It is finished." And on the third day, he rose, proving that the God who sees you is not just willing to save you. He is powerful enough to actually do it.
This is the whole point of Hagar's story, and it's the whole point of yours. The God who found a runaway slave girl beside a spring is the same God who found you before you ever went looking for him. He doesn't just see your situation from a distance. In Jesus, he has lived inside a body like yours, felt what you feel, and gone to the cross so that being seen by him would never again mean being condemned by him.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Jesus, thank you that you are not a God who watches from far away. Thank you that you stepped into a body like mine, felt what I feel, and went to the cross to make sure being seen by you would always mean being loved by you, not condemned by you. I bring you what I've been carrying alone. Be near it. Amen.
TODAY'S PRACTICE
Read Hebrews 4:16 slowly: "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Bring one specific need to him today - not a vague one, a real one - and ask boldly.
SCRIPTURE READING: John 1:47-48; Hebrews 4:15-16 (NIV)
"'How do you know me?' Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, 'I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.'... For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet he did not sin."
DEVOTIONAL REFLECTION
Hagar met God at a spring in the wilderness and gave him a name that had never been spoken before: El Roi, the God who sees me. If you want to know what that name looks like with skin on, look at Jesus.
Everywhere Jesus goes, he keeps doing what the angel did for Hagar. He sees the people everyone else has stopped looking at. He knows the truth about a man's life before that man says a word. He stops for the people the crowd tells to be quiet. He touches the people others go out of their way to avoid touching. He isn't a God who observes suffering from a safe distance - he is a God who moves toward it, on purpose, again and again.
But here's where it costs him everything. Hagar was found by an angel God sent. Jesus didn't send anyone. He came himself. He stepped all the way into a human body, into hunger and grief and exhaustion and betrayal, so that when Hebrews says he can "empathize with our weaknesses," it isn't a nice idea. It's a fact he earned in his own skin.
And then he went further still. At the cross, God did not look away from what sin actually costs. He didn't wave it off from a distance. Jesus carried it - your worst moment, your secret shame, the wound you've never told anyone about - all the way to the point of death. No nail forced him to stay there. Love held him there. He stayed until he could say, "It is finished." And on the third day, he rose, proving that the God who sees you is not just willing to save you. He is powerful enough to actually do it.
This is the whole point of Hagar's story, and it's the whole point of yours. The God who found a runaway slave girl beside a spring is the same God who found you before you ever went looking for him. He doesn't just see your situation from a distance. In Jesus, he has lived inside a body like yours, felt what you feel, and gone to the cross so that being seen by him would never again mean being condemned by him.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- What does it change for me to know that Jesus doesn't just see my struggles, but has actually felt them?
- Where do I need a high priest who empathizes with me, rather than a distant God who judges from a distance?
- What did it cost Jesus, specifically, to see me the way he does?
- Do I actually believe he is not just willing to save me, but powerful enough to?
- How does the resurrection change the way I carry an unresolved wound today?
Jesus, thank you that you are not a God who watches from far away. Thank you that you stepped into a body like mine, felt what I feel, and went to the cross to make sure being seen by you would always mean being loved by you, not condemned by you. I bring you what I've been carrying alone. Be near it. Amen.
TODAY'S PRACTICE
Read Hebrews 4:16 slowly: "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Bring one specific need to him today - not a vague one, a real one - and ask boldly.
Posted in Daily Devotional