I see you
Genesis 16:13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?”
You’re looking sharp today, hair and sunglasses both saying "I’m ready for you, Day, bring it on." You steer skillfully through morning traffic, having already made it to the first bus stop of the day, now getting the next kid delivered in the nick of time. Your day will fill with people and activity and all kinds of stuff that you don’t control, but you will deal with it and somehow manage to accomplish what you set out to do. You are She Who Gets It Done, and generally it is done with perfection, with pizzazz, and with the all-important properly attributed Purpose.
Or maybe that was yesterday, and today you’ve got your hair tucked into your hat, had to write a tardy note for EVERYONE, you’re wondering if that old bottle of spot cleaner will work on the new coffee stain on your van seat, and it isn’t even 8:00 yet. Aargh!
I see you girl, and I’m cheering you on. I was in your season once, and I remember. Love carried me through those years, and I’m trusting it is carrying you, too. You love your family. You love God. You love the people in your life. And I hope really, really hard that you love yourself, too. Your love for everyone else will energize you for a long time, but eventually - you have to see yourself, see what God sees, love what God loves.
For many of us, our years of raising children become a chance for a do-over - getting right all the many things that went wrong in our childhood. Making sure such things don’t happen to our babies. It gets pretty stressful, and in the process, we tend to shut down our own healing journey, focusing our energies into the future instead. Of course, those past wounds need tending, and wind up inserting themselves into our present.
In the middle of doing all that you do, the feelings of invisibility, of being assumed upon, taken for granted, unappreciated or unrecognized - those are real, valid and probably inescapable. We are human - we don’t always see each other well. But God is The One Who Sees Me; he is The One Who Sees You. You are seen by him. Can you truly see the One Who Sees Me? Can you see yourself as he sees you? Can you accept the love and restoration that he offers you, even in the middle of She Who Gets It Done survival mode?
p.s. This isn’t true just for girls. Those in a different season or life situation than described above - I see you, too. More importantly, God is The One Who Sees You.
Scripture Meditation & Affirmation:
You are the God who Sees Me.
Prayer:
Holy Father,
Thank you for your unfailing love and brilliant ability to see me. There are parts of me that I have not taken a good look at in quite a while - and yet you can see it all. Please help me to see you, to view myself with you, and to love myself with you. This is scary, Lord, and I need help sometimes to keep my eyes open. Thank you for meeting me here. Amen.