I See You...

Three simple words none of them exceeding three letters but they mean so much. I see you. No I don't mean as in "Peek-a-boo-I-see-you" I mean "I see you", I see your worth, your meaning, your tears, and struggles. I see you for you, and I care.

Sometimes I get caught up in my own crazy life and I forget to look around and tell the people that are hurting because they feel alone or they just had a fight with their mom or someone they had grown up with hurt them. Or they just need someone to talk or pray with late at night -when I am exhausted and just want to crawl into bed and sleep- that I see them, I hear them. I feel their pain, and so does He.

Recently I picked up a new devotional You Were Made To Make A Difference (By the way really great devotional) this morning the chapter was talking about seeing with His eyes. Even when things are prettier when you don't notice the ugliness that surrounds us, even when it's easier to ignore. To close your eyes and ears and keep walking.

A few weeks ago I felt that I was supposed to go with my dad to meet my baby cousin who wasn't expected to live (If you would like to read his story read The Other Side Of The Waiting Room and Long Road Home...) No one was forcing me to go, if anything it worried my parents that I was going. But in the end, I found myself walking through the door into the delivery room three hours from home with my dad and aunt.

For the first time I realized what I was about to face, and to be honest I was scared as I stepped through the camera in hand (I was there to help take photos of my cousins little life) That day changed me. But for the first time in a really long time I was able to see. I was able to feel. As horribly painful as that day was it was also healing.

It opened my eyes again it pulled the stoppers out of my ears and it found parts of my heart I haven't felt in years. It ripped away the rough scars that covered my heart and left me changed. It allowed me to see the pain in others lives. To see the outcasts and in a small way step back and say I see you. I hear you. I care about you. I feel your pain. I love you and so does He.

How much do we miss with headphones jammed into our ears listening to our favorite songs (nothing against good music) or entranced in our phones texting our friends? How much do we miss? I get it, it is easier no safer to stay plugged up in our own little worlds unconscious to the struggles and tears of those around us. It is safer not to feel.

It is safer to bury ourselves in our school work and sports and after school activities because the world is a scary place. But we miss so much beauty when we are hiding... we miss out on the great adventure of life and the plans he has for us.

Father, please give me your eyes to see those who need a friend or a shoulder to lean on or an ear to hear their story. Give me your ears to hear. Your hands to help. Your heart to love the broken. Your feet to go where I am scared to go. Help me to see those that need you.