Hello friend, don’t let the picture fool you, this isn’t a post about toys or clutter, kids or parenting, this is a post about you. I wanted to take a moment to talk to you. You, there, in the back. Yes, you, hiding in the shadows. You're the one who feels unseen, used, and unusable. You get up every day and give your best to your children, your husband, your friendships, your home, your job. It isn't perfect, but it's what you've got to offer. You smile when you feel like crying. You change another diaper when you feel like running out the door, and down the road, and out of town...You text your friends with smiling emojis to lighten the mood, but you wish you could say what you're really worried about. You make dinner one more time, you clean up the dishes, you sweep the floors, you scoop the coffee and set the timer for the morning. You'll do it again tomorrow. And you feel like no one notices.
And maybe you're right.
I don't mean to be harsh, but most people are too focused on their own lives to lift their heads up and see yours. Once in a while a kind friend notices the tears pooling in the corners of your eyes. Sometimes someone offers a prayer, a hug. Those are nice. But mostly, you're just another person on another day trying to get by.
You’ve been hurt, too. You bear the scars of betrayal, heartbreak, disappointment, disillusionment. Maybe a friend stopped texting, your relationship fizzled, and you’re not sure why. Maybe you’ve lost something you loved and no one seems to understand how bad it hurts. Maybe your life isn’t what you hoped it would be. Maybe someone who was supposed to be there for you, support you, love you, left.
Do you feel lonely? It’s hard not to right now, holed up in our houses. Our best friendships are digital. Our lives are curated into photos, snapshots that avoid the mess of our realities. We’re left peeking into everyone else’s lives like window-shopping the Internet. But when we black the screen, the house is quiet. Or, maybe it’s filled with the sounds of little kids, but somehow it still feels lonely.
I know. I feel it too. Unseen.
But here’s what I really want to say to you, in the back of the room, in the lonely shadows: There’s a God who sees you.
When everyone else is too busy to notice, God does. When no one seems to understand the difficulties you face, God does. When you wonder if anyone cares about your life, your heart, your dreams, your pain, God does.
Here, I’ll show you:
God is “acquainted with all your ways”
God “saw your unformed substance” even as you grew in your mother’s womb
God has “searched you and known you”
God knows “when you sit down and when you rise up”
God has “searched out your path and your lying down”
God “hems you in, behind and before”
God “knitted you together in your mothers womb”
God wrote “all the days formed for you” before you lived even one of them
This is all from Psalm 139, just one chapter out of a huge Bible filled with the ways God sees you. It’s so much a part of who God is, that it is one of his names. El Roi – the God who sees. A woman gave God that name. A woman betrayed, hurt, lonely and lost. Her name was Hagar. God met her in her desperate situation. God saw her.
This God that sees doesn’t look on with indifference. He sees us in love. He created us. We are special to him. I know, it’s crazy. I know it’s hard to understand why an almighty God would care about an ordinary me. But he tells us it’s true over and over. The Bible repeats it from the first chapter to the last, over thousands of years, and the Holy Spirit still proclaims it today – God loves us.
I think that’s better than anyone else’s attention.
So, friend, I encourage you to rest in El Roi, the God who sees, today. Rest in his acknowledgment of you. Rest in his involvement in your life. Rest in his plan for you. Rest in his love. And I will try to do the same.
God, I feel lonely, unseen, used, and unusable. But, I trust today that you are El Roi, the God who sees. Thank you for seeing me and for loving me. Help me to rest in you today.