"The God Who Sees Me"

     God demonstrates his mercy and love to Sarah's maidservant Hagar, who then calls Him "the God who sees me." While her son Ishmael is not the promised child, he is still the seed of Abraham. That was the Bible Story this week for our intimate group of four. (New Life children have been fighting sickness all month.)
     Our opening time included the addition of some books about the desert to help the children picture the hot, dry land that Hagar found herself in after fleeing her tense relationship with Sarah.  
     Excitement built as we passed out sealed envelopes containing alphabet letters and baby boy symbols, clues to help the children guess what our story was about.  Mrs. Shuff and I were tickled when one of the children unscrambled the letters intended to spell out "baby" as "Abby." Abby was rather thrilled, too. After putting them in the correct order, the children were ready to hear more about the mysterious baby boy, especially when I told them that a visitor would be telling it.
     The visitor was in fact me, telling the story from Hagar's perspective. I presented this difficult story simply, emphasizing that Sarah and Abraham were impatient for God's promise of a son but that Sarah's idea for Abraham to act as though Hagar was his wife was not a good one. We focused on the Lord's kindness to this maidservant, even after she had taunted Sarah with her pregnancy. The Angel of the Lord comforted her in the desert where she had fled and from then on she referred to Him as "the God who sees me."
    Our question time was fruitful with correct answers rewarded with Baby Boy stickers. Together, we sang our new verse (Proverbs 30:5), then reviewed all eight covered so far using large picture cue cards. To end our evening, we colored pictures of Abraham holding Baby Ishmael, who would become the father of the Arab nation. Keep working on your Scripture verses at home! We are closing in on 10 verses!