The God Who Sees Me

How

is it

that God can 

see even me

as one child amidst

countless faces in this

tide of humanity that

sweeps over the face of the world,

overwhelming me with manyness?

Devotional Reflections

Thank you, God, for seeing me. It amazes me that you see your children singly amidst a world awash with individuals. But you do. I often feel that I am one very small drop in a sea of faces, and yet you are the God who sees each person. If I had many children, perhaps I could relate better. Some families are large, with five to ten children. The parents love and value their children, seeing each one as a separate being, unique. God’s ability to see his children in this way is almost inconceivable because it’s on a much larger scale. 

Some religions view souls as being absorbed into a universal consciousness, like the vastness of the ocean or emptiness of space. I can understand their perspective. Without knowing God, it’s easy to feel completely inconsequential in the ocean of humanity, or on an even grander scale, the vacuum of the dark, infinitesimal universe. How could we matter? It’s easy to feel like just one tiny stitch in the unending blanket of space.

But that is not how scripture describes God, the creator of all this infinity. He doesn’t regard even the stars in the galaxies as void. Instead, he names each one! (Psalm 147:4) Jesus describes clothing the field flowers with care, knowing when a tiny bird falls from its nesting place, and counting the very hairs on our heads! Although using hyperbole, the point Jesus is making is that God is a relational being who is not only capable of knowing each individual on an intimate level, he wants to! To God, we are not merely an atom making up the universe. We are not a drop of water in the ocean. Our individuality is not a meaningless illusion that merely merges back into a universal consciousness at death. No, God sees each of us as unique - precious, beloved, valued, known, and desired. He is our loving Father, who sees us.

The mystery is that the same God who knows the number of your eyelashes and cares about the complexities of your life, also cares about someone on the other side of the world in the same intimate way. Every person who cries out to him receives his focused attention with the same degree of love. Just as the father of ten children cares as much about the needs of his oldest as he listens for the cries of his youngest, so God deeply loves every person who calls him father all over the world.

If you are having one of those days like I sometimes do - one of those days when you wonder how God could concern himself with you when there are so many others more worthy, then stop and remind yourself of this truth. Every one of us is undeserving of His love. There is no one more worthy than the other. Each one of us is a beloved child in God's large family. Our Father sees and loves you just as he loves me. 

“ See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are”!  -1 John 3:1

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.”  - Psalm 139 1-3 

(Read the whole passage here: Psalm 139:1-18)

By Heather J. Willis, author