He Sees Us
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“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”*
“For
the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their
prayers.”* *
Al had put his trust in Jesus Christ
years earlier; however, personal and work-related issues were causing him much
stress. He loved hiking and backpacking in the mountains and was looking
forward to the getaway.
His goal was to climb Eagle Scout
Peak in the backcountry of Sequoia National Park. The mountain peak, about
12,000 feet high, was on the main crest of the Great Western Divide of the Sierras.
Having earned his Eagle Scout award as a junior in high school, climbing that
particular mountain was something he especially wanted to do.
Hiking along the High Sierra trail, Al reached the crest and then started
to ascend the peak. He was not able to find a clearly marked path and had to
search for the best route to the summit. One route that he tried led to a sheer
cliff face with a long vertical drop to the boulders below, causing him to
retreat to a safer place.
From there, he happened to see the
summit only about fifty yards away. To his dismay, he also discovered that there
were cairns—small piles of rocks—marking a path to the top. Following the trail
would have saved time and energy.
Once on the summit, there was a
breath-taking 360-degree view of many of the highest peaks in the Sierra,
including Mount Whitney at 14,500 feet, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states.
The sky was clear overhead, and the only sound that could be heard was an
occasional gust of wind.
Al, overcome with a sense of peace
and thanksgiving, lifted up his hands and called out, “Thank you, Lord, for
this beautiful creation! Be very close to me and show me your presence.”
In Al’s own words: “It seemed that
immediately afterwards, I noticed a black speck in the distance which came
closer and closer as I watched. Amazingly, it was a bald eagle which soared
toward me, coming within feet of me…” The eagle circled around him and then
flew away until it was just “a speck again.”
“ ‘Thank you! Thank you, Lord,’ I said
with tears in my eyes.”
He looks back on that experience as
a kind of interaction, an affirmation that God had heard him. “I knew that He was with me.”
It was the following spring that Al
and I met. It was a very unlikely meeting considering that we were living in
two different towns, fifty miles apart.
“God guided me to you!” he still claims
emphatically forty years later. And Al was definitely a great answer to my
prayers for a husband.
In reading through the Old and New
Testaments, the truth of His presence is revealed in the lives of many of His
people. One such person was Hagar, the young servant girl of Abraham’s wife,
Sarah. When Sarah could not conceive a child, she insisted that Abraham have a
baby through Hagar since having an heir to carry on the family line was of
utmost importance. Later though,
during Hagar’s pregnancy, Sarah became jealous and treated her cruelly, sending
her away. The story, found in Genesis 16, goes on to tell how the “angel of the
Lord” met Hagar near a spring in the desert. The angel of the Lord told her to
return to Sarah, promising that she would have a son, giving him the name
Ishmael and foretelling many things about his future.
Hagar responded by calling the Lord
who rescued her and had given her new hope, “El Roi.” “You are the God who sees me…” (Genesis 16:13a NIV)
Not only does God see us, He also hears our
prayers. He is a God who is living and active, who wants to have a central part
in our lives. May we always acknowledge His presence and give Him the glory.
* 2Chronicles 17:9a NIV **1Peter
3:12a NIV
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