This week a friend posted a very cool short article written by a woman on how God takes into consideration a woman’s unique responsibilities and meets her where she is.  She often can’t leave those she cares for, her jobs, etc to come apart to meet with God, so he comes to her.  This got me thinking.  I came up with a list of women in the Bible who had an encounter with the God who sought them out and met them right in the middle of mundane daily life.  In making that list, I also noticed women that God gave important kingdom work to do right where they were, often in their homes.  Then, just as I thought I had this all figured out, I realized that God also met with women who did go to a special place to meet with him like the Temple or the Tabernacle or to Jesus in public places, or to meetings of Christians. Or he met them in the middle of a crisis.  He also gave some women kingdom work out of their comfort zone,  or in public places.   So I came to the conclusion that we serve a mysterious God who is past figuring out.  We never know how he will choose to meet us and direct us.  But we do know for certain some things about God.  We know he sees us.  He is compassionate.  He understands us even when we don’t.  He is tender.  He lavishes loving care on us.  He has a purpose for us.  We serve a kind Boss.

 I can’t begin to cover all these women of the Bible in one short article, so I’m going to start with just one group of women who felt unnoticed, marginalized, invisible, powerless, voiceless.  They felt unseen and unheard.  If you have ever felt like that, check out these women who were noticed by God.

Sara was unable to have children for her entire lifetime.  In her culture, childlessness was a curse and a sign that God wasn’t happy with her.  Other women had children, but not her.  She felt forgotten, left out.  So she had taken unwise measures to try to fill her childless void.  She told her husband to sleep with her servant girl so she could give him a child.  She followed through on this scheme of hers, but God had a better plan.  God made an outlandish promise to her elderly husband that they, both already in old age, would someday have a child of their own.  Her husband laughed at the improbability of it.  A little later, she had been going about her daily routine when guests arrived.  After she helped to prepare the meal, one of the Guests told her husband in her hearing what the time frame for their baby’s arrival would be.  Next year.  This time Sara laughed.  But just like the time her husband laughed, the Lord was patient and didn’t strike them down.  He called her out on her unbelief and then simply reaffirmed his promise.  Sure enough, the baby arrived right on time.  In this story, the Lord gave her what she desired, but in his own timing after she been childless until she was ninety years old.  He had seen her hurt all along and had a plan.

Then there was Hagar.  She was a foreigner.  She was a servant to Sara.  She was used as a surrogate mother.  Then she was mistreated.  She decided to run away from her situation, but God appeared to her and told her he knew all about her distressing circumstances.  He gave her a promise and sent her back.  In this story, the Lord didn’t change her circumstances, but he showed her he was with her in them.

“You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. . . .”
She said, “You are the God who sees me.”  Genesis 16:11,13

Hagar’s situation never resolved, instead, it came to a breaking point about 14 years later.  She and her son were dismissed with only the provisions they could carry.  Not surprisingly, they soon ran out of water and could find none in the wilderness.  Once again Hagar was at her wit’s end.  Again, God didn’t magically change her circumstances.  Instead, he gave her a promise and provided for her most pressing need.

“But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.  Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.”
Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water.  She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink.
And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness.”  Genesis 21:17-20

The widow of Zarephath.  She was not one of God’s chosen people.  She was a foreigner living in a country bordering Israel.  Her husband had died, leaving her alone with a young son.  She was destitute.  Starvation was an impending reality during a severe famine in the area.  Apparently, no one cared if she lived or died.  But God cared.  So he sent his prophet to provide for her.  The prophet met her as she was doing her daily routine of scrounging for sticks to make a cooking fire.  But she knew that this day was the last day she would gather sticks to cook.  Her food supply was gone and she had no means to get more.  It was in this desperate state of affairs that God intervened in a miraculous way.

But Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you’ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son.  For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!  So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days.  There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah.  1 Kings 17:13-16

I don’t know how God will show up in your life.  But I know he will.  I don’t know how he’ll take care of you.  But I know he will when you rely on him instead of your own schemes, and when you obey him.  I don’t know whether you feel unseen and unheard, but I know God sees and hears you.