The God Who Sees - Gareth Davies

I have seen the goodness of God many times in my life, in big ways and in small ways. But today, I want to share a story about something small, almost insignificant, which to me was an encouragement of how God, even in the simple things, is listening.

The other day I was out and about working in Merthyr Tydfil, I must have been to a dozen or so places. When I got home I realised, to my horror, that my house keys were not with me (I keep work keys and personal key rings separate). I had locked the front door when I left that morning and, to the best of my knowledge, they had stayed in my pocket ever since. Except they weren’t. They must have fallen out.

What followed was me driving around Merthyr Tydfil to umpteen different locations where they might have fallen out. Nothing. I came back home empty handed. I sat down with a cuppa, feeling a bit annoyed at myself, and caught myself praying, “Lord, I’m not even sure you care about something as trivial as a set of keys, but it’s really important to me.”

A few moments of silence passed, and then it occurred to me that on the final job of the day, I had needed to access the secure storage unit on the roof of my van (which needs a key to open, and I keep the key on the set I’d lost).

I got up, looked out the window and, sure enough, hanging from the roof of the van were the missing keys.

Then I felt a bit silly for a moment, and then a little amazed. I had driven home with my keys hanging off the roof of the van the whole time, and they didn’t fall off.

Perhaps that’s too simple a miracle for some, but it reminded me of one of my favourite passages in the Old Testament. In Genesis 16 Hagar is to give birth Ishmael, the son of Abraham. If you know the story, Abraham was given a promise of children and descendants, and Ishmael was the result of Abraham trying to ‘help’ God fulfil the promise. But Ishmael is not to inherit the promise of God, and so Hagar runs away. Yet, even so, an angel appears to Hagar saying that God had seen her suffering and promises to bless Ishmael none the less. Hagar responds, ‘Now I know that You are the God who sees.’

I love that. The God who sees. Sometimes, even in the simplest things, smallest things, God sees and He knows.

I hope this is an encouragement to you today.