1 Mose 16,13
Text by Gaby Inglese, 44, Basel (CH), mother, wife, team member at the ARCHE bookstore
The annual motto for 2023 has been with me since the first day of the new year
We have a ritual where we meet up with a family friend over New Year's Eve and one of us prepares input on the new year's motto for children and adults. Last year it was my husband's turn to prepare the input. I had brought matching cards with the verse on them and we were each allowed to choose one as a souvenir. My husband gave each of us a large sheet of paper with the task of drawing and designing the verse for the year. Since then my paper has been hanging in our home. On this I wrote down the annual motto in words and also used various pictures to show what it means to me. On it is an eye that shows that I do not escape God's eyes, a mouth that shows that God is speaking to me, a path that reminds me that God sees and directs my steps, hearts that show God's big heart for me represent, a hand reaching out to me and the moon and stars that show how much higher God's thoughts are than mine.
Being seen takes courage
Sometimes the thought of God seeing me disturbs me. If I haven't hit the right tone in a conversation, if I'm harboring unholy thoughts, if I'm not feeling fresh and cheerful at all, then I want to hide from God and the whole world. Sometimes I don't want to be seen at all. Sometimes it's more convenient not to be seen.
Being seen takes courage. It takes courage to stand by your opinion and your convictions and to represent them to others.
This year I was able to see again and again how good things could come from making myself “visible”.
At the beginning of the year I was at a seminar and had to deal with an almost unheated hotel room. When I arrived the room temperature was 16°. The question was: Do I suffer in silence and simply accept the cold or do I take action and do something about it? Everyone who knows me knows how uncomfortable I am with standing out in a group. But there I decided to make myself “visible” and reported the defective heating to the person in charge. I was amazed at how many people then spoke to me about my inadequate heating, showed sympathy or offered to help me. I felt seen by the other seminar participants and therefore “seen by God”.
God is interested in my everyday life
Apparently God is also interested in my little everyday problems. None of this is too small and insignificant or “not worth mentioning” for him. God gave my husband and me two sons, who always reflect to me how great God's interest in me must be. Just as I am interested in the worries and needs of my children and suffer with them when they are not well, God is also interested in me and suffers with me when I suffer. What a privilege!
God uses others to remind us that He sees us
For several years I have been walking with a few women in prayer for our children. In this group we pray for everything that concerns our children, our family or the children's school. A few weeks ago, I almost couldn't concentrate on prayer because my thoughts were constantly circling around my problems at work. I got lost in a carousel of worries and couldn't find a way out of it.
When I asked my friends for prayer support after another sleepless night, one of them spoke up and spontaneously asked if she should come to my house to pray. This was exactly what I secretly wanted but hadn't told anyone! I no longer had the strength to pray, but my sister in faith let God use her to pray for me. She carried me and my worries to God, just as the paralyzed man was carried to Jesus by his friends (Luke 5:17-26).
That was a huge sign of love from God for me. I noticed: God sees beyond my wishes and needs, he sees my secret longing and responds to it before I ask him for it! Our God is so great, I can only be amazed.
Believing that I am important to God, that he really means ME when he says he sees me, is and remains a huge learning field for me. I am his beloved child, his beloved daughter and he sees me.
I wish for myself and you that we can see God's eyes on us every day.
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