Living Ghosts!

“Lost Larry” visited me again this week. He comes by for a handout, always with a story about his bad luck. This week he said he had just got out of jail after the cops caught up with him for some old outstanding warrants. “Man, I’m all done with them now. I sat out all my fines, but my boss is made and gave me the week off. I don’t have any food.”  I provided a bag of groceries for him from the food pantry. He’s like a living ghost,  one of those invisible people who walk the streets without being seen. Those who do see him, see a problem not a person. On reflection, I realize even I, too, have let him be invisible. I have not made a real effort to connect him. Sure, I feed him, even give him a ride to his room, but I don’t even know his name!

Develop a chronic or disabling illness and see how many people steer clear of you. Start to struggle with mental illness or delusions it will not take long for friends and family to stop calling. Lose your money or your job and, in the eyes of many, you will quickly become a number, a case, not a person. Young mothers who are home all day, every week, month after month, caring for babies tell me that they sometimes feel invisible. Those who have a disability that confines them to a wheelchair or mars their speech tell me how people will ignore them though they are in plain sight! Many who are old tell me how they feel like living ghosts, unseen by the world.

Hagar was an Egyptian slave girl. Sarah presented her to Abraham to be a surrogate mother. It was not unusual for barren women to do this in that time. After becoming pregnant with Abraham's child, Hagar somehow offended Sarah, most likely forgetting her social position and deference, mistakenly thinking that since she was carrying the baby of the head of the household, she was secure. But, she overplayed her hand and Abraham did not come to her rescue. He abandoned her emotionally and left her in the hands of Sarah, now jealous and angry.  In time, she choose to run away, a choice of sheer desperation, knowing that she would almost certainly be enslaved yet again. Sitting alone and afraid by a spring, she met God who spoke to her heart with promise! Amazed that the Lord would take note of a slave girl, Hagar gave God a Name - El Roi- meaning, "The God who sees me."  (Genesis 16)

You are not invisible to God! A slave girl, a person who was invisible in her society, discovered that God is El Roi - the One who see me! She found courage in that to return to her situation and work through it, hard as it was. When we know that God cares, it may not change our situation, but it changes us. In Him we are given worth, dignity, and resources that allow us to press ahead. Feeling invisible?  Pour out your heart to Him today. He won't turn away in disgust. He won't offer you some empty platitude or a pat on the head. He will see all the way into your heart!

Our word from the Word is taken from Jesus’ peculiar illustration of our worth in the eyes of God. "Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-32, NLT)

Little sparrow, look up and wait for El Roi - the God who sees!

_____________________________

Why should I feel discouraged?

Why should the shadows come?

Why should my heart be lonely,

And long for heaven and home?

When Jesus is my portion?

My constant friend is He:

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me!

I sing because I'm happy,

I sing because I'm free.

For His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me.

"Let not your heart be troubled,"

His tender word I hear,

And resting on His goodness,

I lose my doubts and fears;

Though by the path He leadeth,

But one step I may see:

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me!

©Civilia D. Martin
          Public Domain