Hagar, in a time of deep desperation, after conceiving a child by Abraham and being mistreated and driven away by her mistress Sarah, encountered God Himself. He told her to name her child Ishmael (God hears), because God had heard her affliction. She then proceeded to name the nearby well Beer-lahai-roi (the well of the living one who sees me). God was attentive even to an Egyptian slave. I venture to suggest that God not only saw and heard Hagar; He knew her pain. He understood her plight even better than she understood it herself. That is the kind of intimacy experienced by the Beloved.
