By: Megan Lavaux
I was watching college game day and was shocked to see:
Hundreds, if not thousands of college students trying to get on TV.
Actually, I’m not that shocked. It seems as if we all want that TV moment or to be featured on a popular Instagram page. Or maybe as a kid, we practiced our Disney Channel intro in the mirror saying, “Hi my name is Miley Cyrus from Hannah Montana and you’re watching Disney Channel.”
We say we don’t want fame, but we strive for attention. We strive for approval. We strive for likes. We strive to be liked.
I’d be lying to you if I told you that I no longer long for the approval and acceptance of others. I struggle with it daily. I want comments and likes. It is so easy for me to preach that our worth does not come from likes, but somehow, our flesh still desires that recognition at times.
And I am not here to tell you that “You have God’s approval, stop trying.” I am not here to tell you that this is invalid, and that you need to stop living for attention and worth from people and then choke Galatians 1:10 down your throat.
But I am here to validate this feeling. As women, we want to be seen. Eve wanted to be seen and found by her Creator. It is so natural for us women to want to feel seen and actually be seen.
Ladies, I came across this quote in a @SheReadsTruth Bible Study: “I wonder if we are all born with an innate desire to be seen because we already are.”
We are seen, but we have a hard time seeing that we are seen. We do not always recognize the divine truth of God’s eyes ever on us. He no longer turns away at the sight of our sin but draws us even closer. He loves us so much that He wants to look at us, admire us, and behold our beauty.
I lost my grandmother in May of 2019. It hurt me so deeply because she truly, genuinely saw me. Saw me for who I am and always made me feel seen. She wanted to see me, wanted to admire me.
One of the last things she said to me was an apology for her not being in my life in the past couple weeks of her being in the hospital. She was getting surgeries and in immense pain, and still her heart desired to see me. She longed to see me and knew it made me feel loved.
But almost a year later, the Lord is still speaking to me in the midst of my grieving and losing the one who sees me.
And this is not a feeling new to the 21st Century—try 3300 BC! Hagar, a female slave, was appointed to bear a child to Abram because Sarai was barren and could not conceive.
Sarai wanted to build a family from Hagar’s fertility and her husband’s willingness. But seeing her female slave pregnant made her jealous and she began to treat Hagar horribly, to the point of fleeing.
Pregnant, lonely, hated, once needed, now discarded. This is how Hagar felt. But in her escape, God found her and saw her. He drew Hagar closer.
“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.’” -Genesis 16:13
“The One who sees me” is El Roi.
Out of all of the names and attributes of God, this one is probably my favorite. Why? Because I know what it feels like to feel alone, but the truth that God sees me in that pain and meets me there is so beautiful to me.
My grandmother was El Roi to me in female form. That is part of the reason why her loss cut so deep.
College Girl, you are seen. I do not say this to fill up space on my blog but to remind you.
You are deeply seen by El Roi and you deserve to be seen and found.
And before we are seen by friends, a significant other, your parents, allow yourself to be truly, deeply, and intimately seen by the Lord.
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