Welcome to Unseen today. Today i feel nostalgic and sad. My children are growing up and my parents have passed away. Today is the anniversary of  my mom's death. I went looking back through old writing looking for encouragement. This is what I found. Hope it is helpful for you, too.

 

Watch Me

The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him. Ps 33:5

“Watch me, Mama!”  How many times have I heard those words in the last 19 years? Usually they are followed by a daring feat, a skateboard jump, a dive or even a spectacular crash with Hot Wheels. Many times, it will work great until the moment that I look, and then fall flat. It doesn't matter to my kids though. They just love the attention.  It is not just my kids either.  When my kids were little, I would sit out on the front porch with them on cool evenings.  I would watch them play and neighbor kids would come up. “Hey, Rob's mom, watch!”  The need to be noticed is universal. We don't seem to outgrow the need either. I was talking to one of my residents at the nursing home where I work not long ago. She had been a professor at a local college, and I asked her what she liked best about teaching. She looked me in the eye and said, “People would listen to me.”  What an indictment on our culture.

In Genesis 16 we read the story of Hagar, Hagar was Sarah's maid. She had been given to Abraham so she could bear him a child. This was Sarah's idea. When Hagar actually had the child, Sarah was furious and jealous and the Bible says Sarah was despised in Hagar's eyes.  Abraham tells Sarah that she can do what seems right with Hagar. Sarah sends her to the wilderness.  In despair, Hagar is crying in the wilderness, when an angel finds her and brings her words of assurance. She builds an altar and says “You, oh Lord have seen me.” Her words in Hebrew, El Roi, are one of the names for God: the God who sees.

When I was little I used to hear the song “There's an All Seeing Eye Watching You” , and to be honest it gave me the willies. I pictured a big eyeball watching everything I did, waiting for me to make a mistake. I know now, though, that it is the eye of a loving God watching over me just as he watched over Hagar. Psalms 121:5 we read, The Lord watches over you. He is your shade on your right hand. Matthew 10 says that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge. Ladies take comfort in the fact that your Father is watching you and he sees all your pain and the injustices done to you. You are precious to him.