On this second day of December, my advent devotional pointed me to the story in the book of Genesis when Hagar is running away from Sarai. You see Sarai could not get pregnant so she told her slave Hagar to go to her husband Abram and to have a baby for her. After this happened Sarai became angry and started to treat Hagar poorly which led to Hagar running away. The angel of the Lord came to Hagar, he met her where she was at, and in Genesis 16:13 it says, “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her; “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the one who sees me.” The angel of the Lord told her to go back to Sarai and promised her more descendants than she could count.

Hagar was mistreated, I’m sure she felt used and unseen. But God saw her. He saw her right there where she was at. How special that moment must have been for Hagar to go from unseen to seen. We are seen by people every day but not always on a level of truly knowing them. We can see people and know nothing about them. We can walk around on a daily basis feeling invisible. When we feel that way we also don’t feel loved. We can love and be loved by people, but the best love of all comes from having a saving faith in the one who came to earth to save us from our sins.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the things that make people think of Christmas. One of the things that came to mind is gifts. I thought about how Jesus’ birth is a gift to all humanity. God gave us the gift of Jesus because he loves us. We give gifts to other’s during the Christmas season because we love them. I then thought about all the pictures I see on social media of gifts overflowing from under Christmas trees. Can you picture it with me? We give gifts because we love our families and it is an expression of our love. I’ve spent a decent amount of time shopping but I’m trying to keep my focus on the calm, peace, joy, hope, generosity, and love that this season is all about. So today, on this giving Tuesday, I challenged my family to look through their belongings, find an item or several that they no longer use and put it in the donation box. I’m away for the night helping a friend get to an appointment in the morning, so I’m not sure if this challenge was completed. If not today then tomorrow, and hopefully next Tuesday and the Tuesday after that. What better way to get our minds off of ourselves and what we want than to think about others who may not have things that they want or need. Maybe by donating some things from our home we can help someone feel seen.