Being Seen: Thank you for Seeing Me

A few months back I went to a relative’s 100^th birthday party. It was quite a distance away but the Lord asked me to go, so off we went. I drove rather than flew so I would have more time with God. His revealed purpose for my trip was to simply say thank you to this beloved great aunt for seeing me. It is one thing to spend time with someone, but it is quite another to see them. Being seen is huge. To see the person, not just a person, is a enormous gift to that person.

All of us can be with people and not actually see them. I think it might be that we only see what God allows us to see. And as a small child, He let this relative see me. She and I didn’t spend a bunch of time with one another; because she lived quite a distance away. But through the years we occasionally spoke over the phone, and what she said told me that she saw me.

Being Seen in a Pool of Strangers

At this party I met many distant relatives I never even knew existed. I exchanged typical niceties but essentially I was thrown into a pool of strangers I just happened to be related to. One of them, a second cousin I think, became a delight to be with. She saw me, and the quandary I was in, and attempted to make this awkward scenario more comfortable. Remember, my goal was to wait for my cue to go deliver a message to my great aunt Maizie. The rest was just the path to get there. But this second cousin ended up directing me to a message which validated my whole trip. I was shocked how it played out.

A Word About Being Seen

Without knowing anything of my interaction with Maizie or what God had asked me to do, she recommended that I go listen to a podcast of a pastor she enjoys. And the random message I chose literally spoke about “being seen.” Here is a quote from that message.

“People are searching for God; they want to see God. But what they need more than anything is to realize that God sees them. And the church, when we come together, is the way that God allows Himself to be seen by a world that is looking for Him. We make the Invisible, visible. But more than making it possible for people to see Jesus through us, it is even more important that they are seen by us. That they realize that Jesus sees them because we see them.”

In my next few posts, I am going to speak about being seen. It is something deep in my heart that God has put together. I can’t wait for you to hear it.

“You are the God who sees me!” She also said, “In this place, have I actually seen the One who sees me?” So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”).
Genesis 16:13b-14a

“You are El Roi— the God who sees me.”