El Roi

My goodness! It has been a long time since I have written. I apologize to my faithful readers (you know who you are!)

There is a beautiful Hebrew word in Genesis 16:13; the word is "El Roi"; the "God who sees me." The angel of the Lord has just spoken to Hagar regarding the birth of Ishmael who will "live in hostility toward all his brothers." Hagar says, "You are the God who sees me...I have now seen the One who sees me."

In 2004, Ben and I were on our way to Cleveland, TN, to attend the last class of my seminary experience. Just over the Tennessee line on a two lane road, Ben had just passed two slower cars; there was a big yellow semi-truck in from of us. Suddenly Ben swerved off onto the right shoulder just as the semi in front of us jack-knived into the bank of rocks on the left. Ben had seen what I couldn't see: a small red car coming head-on into the truck. As we hit the shoulder, the red car hit the truck, the truck hit the rocky bank and the two cars which we had just passed hit the right shoulder. Everyone, except us, was involved in a horrible accident. Immediately I called 911. The operator wanted to know the extent of the injuries, so I ran back to the little red car which had come to rest in the middle of the road about 100 feet or so behind us. The gentleman in the red car was covered with blood.

The only thing that happened to our car was a small hole in our front window from where debris had hit us. We know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God saw us that day and protected us from injury. Even before that day I had had a sense of my angel protecting me. I knew that day what his name was---El Roi.